The Doctor and His Guardian
by yetanotherbloodyfan
Summary: Book 1 in The Guardian of Time Series. Against all odds, the Doctor's forbidden love, the Guardian, has survived the Time War also, despite having disappeared some time before. Now join the Gallifreyans as they travel the Universe together, finally free of the High Council's control. But... is the Bad Wolf still waiting for them? Rewrite of Season 1/2. Doctor/OC-Time Lady.
1. Chapter 1:The Guardian

Screams. Billions of screams. They echoed in his mind.

He had destroyed his planet. Time locked it in a moment of fear and pain and fire. Even he couldn't go back and change change events to save it.

Horrifyingly, he didn't even want to. The Time Lords had let the war change them into something twisted, corrupt. There was no telling what they would have done to the Universe if he hadn't stopped them.

So what did that make him?

Savior of the Universe?

Or just the destroyer of his own people?

He barely noticed as the TARDIS landed. A quick glance at the console monitor told him all he needed to know.

Earth. London. Christmas 2009.

Nothing to keep him there. As much as he loved Earth, he was not in the mood for Christmas. It would remind him of all that he had lost.

His daughter. Susan. His brother. _Her._

He didn't even want to think about _her_. It hurt too much.

Even so, he couldn't stop himself from thinking of that beautiful blonde… or brunette… or redhead. Whatever regeneration had made her. The Guardian of the Lord President.

She had died several days before the Last Day. At least, that was the assumption. She had disappeared, and she would never have run away from a battle.

She was the Guardian. Just he had been the Doctor.

Now neither one of them existed.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

He looked up at a dull thud, to see a body thrown up against the wall. He blinked in surprise, then ran over to the form as it dropped to the floor.

He found a woman—or at least he believed the body was that of a woman. She was so severely burned that her features were indistinguishable. The Doctor reached to check her pulse, only to pull his hand away at her faint moan.

"How did you do that?" He muttered.

Then he noticed it. The silver locket around her neck, untouched by whatever had burned her. The circular designs engraved in it were unmistakeable.

"You're a Time Lady?" He whispered.

"Ye..."

He started at her response. She had heard him? Even with his whisper so quiet only someone with extremely good senses could pick it up? He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned her. The results made his hearts sink.

"You've third-degree burns over ninety percent of your body, and a broken back, as well as a head injury that would have killed a human. If you are going to survive this, you need to regenerate. Now."

Her hands started to glow with a weak golden light. The Doctor forced himself to move away, fighting everything within him that wanted to stay beside this woman, this other last survivor.

The golden regeneration energy spread to her face. In a moment, she was engulfed in it, the energy blocking his view of her. He closed his eyes at her cries of pain. The telepathic cry of a Gallifreyan dying was a haunting sound.

An eternal moment later, the screams stopped. He could physically feel the regeneration energy subside. He looked up to see a dark-haired woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties lying on the ground, her features vaguely resembling an Asian human.

As he approached, the woman rolled away and pushed herself to her feet. He stiffened. A soldier. This Time Lady was a soldier. Everything about her—the calculating look in her eyes, the way she held herself, her defensive position—spoke of a well-trained warrior. That explained her fantastic hearing.

Glancing at her again, the Doctor realized that she needed new clothes. Immediately. "The TARDIS has a wardrobe. You should be able to find something that fits you in there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. We can talk after you get changed."

The soldier slipped into an 'at-ease' posture, but she didn't look any less ready to fight him if she needed to. The Doctor moved back the opposite side of the console and busied himself until he heard her leave the room and walk down the hall.

With a sigh, he leaned again the console, gripping the edges so hard his knuckles turned white. How the hell was he supposed to tell her what happened to their planet? Who even was she? Was she a friend, or had she gone insane like all the rest of the Time Lords? If she turned out to be one of his enemies—he didn't doubt that she could kill him with her bare hands.

And he had just given her the perfect opportunity to find a weapon. Few Time Lords got lost in a TARDIS, unlike humans. She could easily find that small, dark, distant storage room where he kept the few weapons in his possession. The room that he tried to lose and couldn't. Tried to forget and failed. Because it only existed for _Her._ In the hopes that she would one day travel with him. A dead hope now.

A few minutes later, after he had sent the TARDIS back into the Vortex, the Time Lady returned. She had changed into a fitted black shirt with a high neckline and elbow-length sleeves and denim trousers tucked into black leather combat boots. In her hand she carried a Gallifreyan Staser.

 _"_ _Put that down."_ He said in Gallifreyan, lifting his hands so she could see he was unarmed.

 _"I suppose you would like that, wouldn't you?"_ She responded sarcastically, also in Gallifreyan.

 _"Yeah, I would. But only because that Staser belonged to a friend of mine. I'd rather not get shot by her weapon, if you don't mind."_

Something flickered in her eyes, but the weapon remained pointed at him. _"Who are you?"_

 _"They call me 'the Doctor'. You?"_

The Time Lady's eyes widened. _"Prove that you are the Doctor."_

Well, that was promising. Enemies didn't typically demand you prove your identity to them. At least not in his experience. _"I should think that the T_ _ARDIS_ _would be proof enough. How many Time Lords are mad enough to steal a Type 40 T_ _ARDIS_ _with a Chameleon Circuit broken as a police box from Earth?"_

 _"_ _The Time Lords all went mad."_ She snapped. _"Prove you are who you say you are."_

The Doctor sighed. How could he prove… With a grin, he pulled the sonic screwdriver back out of his pocket. He tossed it to the woman, who caught it with one hand. " _I only ever made_ _one_ _of those, never showed to designs to anyone, except for one person. She's dead now."_ He nearly whispered the last part.

The Time Lady looked at the screwdriver in her hand, then back at him, her wide eyes fully making contact with his. _"_ _Eltanin_ _?"_

Recognition exploded in his mind. _"_ _Amadahy_ _?"_ He barely dared to whisper the name. _"You're alive?"_

She nodded. _"So are you."_

The Doctor moved around the console and pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly, unable to completely believe that it was her.

 _"_ _How did you survive?"_ He asked into her hair.

 _"I don't know. My last memory is of Gallifrey."_ His hearts sank. She didn't know then. He pulled away from her.

She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. _"I remember the War had just gone bad. Rassilon was plotting something. He would be in the High Council's Library all night sometimes."_ She shook her head. _"Everything is unclear after that."_

The Doctor blinked. _"Amadahy, that was_ _months_ _ago. What is the first thing you remember clearly?"_ He asked to distract her. He _couldn't_ tell her about what happened to Gallifrey. Not right now.

 _"_ _My regeneration_ _._ _Just now._ _"_

Again, the Doctor blinked. He had heard of her abilities to block unpleasant memories, but he had never actually been told of a specific occasion. _"You remember nothing between Gallifrey and now?"_ Perhaps… perhaps he didn't have to tell her the truth about Gallifrey. Perhaps he could tell her that they had been exiled permanently, but that she had been injured and had to regenerate.

 _"I remember_ _that s_ _omething happened to Gallifrey."_ She paused, with a slight frown. _"What happened?"_

He sighed, moving away from her. _"The Moment._ "

 _"The Galaxy-Eater?"_ When he nodded, she continued, _"How did you survive?"_

He didn't respond. He was too ashamed. At her sharp intake of breath, he tensed, waiting for her to shoot him or something like that.

 _"_ _Why did you destroy Gallifrey_ _?"_ She asked coldly.

There it was. Her hatred. He gripped the console until his hands turned white.

 _"The War had turned to hell, Guardian. Rassilon was plotting to destroy the Universe. Arcadia had fallen. And you were missing, assumed dead. My entire family was dead."_

 _"And so that gave you the right to destroy_ _the Time Lords_ _?"_

 _"It was either that or let the entire Universe burn!"_ He snapped, releasing his grip on the console and punching in co-ordinates.

 _"_ _You were never the man to do that."_

He looked back at her in surprise. Her voice had softened.

 _"Making that decision should have been my job. That's not the job for a doctor."_

The Doctor smiled weakly. _"I was never the Doctor in that War. I was the Warrior."_

 _"You were always the Doctor."_

His smile turned grateful, but it was still weak. _"Find a bedroom, Amadahy. Try to get some sleep. You've had a hard day, even if you can't remember it."_

She gave him a knowing look, but collected her gun and walked back down the hall.

As soon as she was out of sight, the Doctor collapsed in the jump chair. She was alive. Apparently, she forgave him for destroying Gallifrey—the Universe only knew why she would so easily.

So what did that mean for them?

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian easily found a room. Evidently the old TARDIS had known something of her, because the room was large but practical, resembling a larger version of her own rooms back on Gallifrey.

 _"Thank you,"_ she said to the time machine.

She removed her shoes and placed them in the large wardrobe in the room. As she investigated the room, the contemplated how easily she had trusted the Doctor's word that their was no choice other than to burn their planet.

Something must have happened to her in the time that she couldn't remember. Something so terrible that she blocked her memories of it, right up to her regeneration.

She collapsed in her bed.

Gallifrey was gone, which meant the High Council and their ridiculous control over her life was gone too.

So what did that mean for her and the Doctor?

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **N/A: Hello! Welcome to my fanfic. So, I will be posting about once a week, but it may get a bit irregular for a while, as I can really only work on this during the weekends (so, if my weekend is busy, then I don't get the chance to write). This first book will really mix things up a bit; some adventures will be shifted around, but believe me, there is a purpose for all the episode shifting.**

 **Also, for now, the Doctor and the Guardian will be speaking a lot in Gallifreyan, indicated by _"italics"_. **

**Oh, and yes, they know each other's name (bonus points to whomever can figure out the significance behind their names!) _._ In my mind, Gallifreyans are open about their names on Gallifrey, but it is still considered a highly intimate thing to call an adult non-family member by their given name. There will be more later why the Doctor's name is a secret. **

**For visuals' sake, I imagine the Guardian to look something like Maggie Q. There will be more information coming about her, but suffice to say: she is not a typical Time Lady.**

 **Next Episode: The Doctor and the Guardian meet a certain blonde teenager.**

 **And a warning: I do not like Rose. So if you love her, and can't stand to hear anything bad about her, do not continue.**


	2. Chapter 2: Rose

**Also, since I forgot it last time: I do not own Doctor Who. If I did, Donna wouldn't have had to forget the Doctor. And Nine would have had a longer run.**

The Guardian looked away from cleaning her blood off the TARDIS walls to see the Doctor walking to the console carrying… a plastic head? A blonde human teenager followed him, looking frantically at the enormous room before disappearing outside for a minute.

"It's going to follow us!" The teenager cried when she returned.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," the Doctor responded confidently. "And believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute."

The Guardian climbed down from her ladder and joined him at the console. The plastic head appeared to be that of a young black man. For some reason, one that the Guardian couldn't understand, the sight of it made her sad.

The Doctor continued muttering to himself, "You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." He finished attaching some circuits to the head, then turned to the Guardian. "Find your room okay?"

She nodded. "It's similar to my old rooms."

The Doctor gave her a sad, apologetic look. "So what have you been doing while I was out?"

The Guardian gestured to the now much-faded bloodstain on the wall. The Doctor's face fell even further. "I meant to get to that so you didn't have to..."

"But a 'thing' happened." The Guardian finished for him. "It's fine. I assume it was my blood anyway?"

The Doctor nodded, then seemed to remember the human, who had been gaping at them for the last minute. "Right," he said to her. "Where do you want to start?"

"Erm, the inside's bigger than the outside?" The girl said.

The Doctor grinned. "Yes."

"It's alien."

"Yeah."

"Are you alien?"

"Yes." The Guardian moved to stand beside the Doctor.

The human stared at them, open-mouthed.

The Doctor, ever the compassionate and concerned one, asked her, "Is that alright?"

"Yeah." The human responded too quickly.

The Doctor gestured to the console room. "It's called the TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S. That's 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'."

Suddenly, the human burst into tears.

"That's okay," the Doctor said, slightly awkwardly. "Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

The Guardian turned to him and raised one eyebrow. She had yet to experience culture shock, despite having not studied all that many alien species beyond their military tactics and weapons capabilities.

"Well, most of us." The Doctor amended his statement.

"Did they kill him?" The human managed to control her tears. "Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"

The Guardian rolled her eyes a bit at the girl's repetitive questions, before turning back to see the plastic head beginning to melt. She hurried over to the controls, trying to get as much of a fix on the fading signal as she could.

"Oh," she heard the Doctor say to the teenager. "I didn't think of that." She rolled her eyes again.

"He's my boyfriend!" The girl snapped. "You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think?"

The melting process sped up, the plastic bubbling.

"And now you're just going to let him melt?"

"Melt?" The Doctor joined the Guardian at the console, flipping switches with frustrated shouts of "no!"

The Guardian flipped a few switches of her own and set the TARDIS in motion as the Doctor went to the monitor.

"What are you doing?" The human asked, apparently annoyed at being abandoned like that.

"Following the signal." The Guardian responded.

"It's fading! Wait a minute, I've got it." A moment later, he threw up his hands with more shouts of "no!"

The Guardian pressed a few more buttons, trying to keep up with everything that needed doing.

"Almost there." The Doctor brightened. "Almost there. Here we go!" He shouted as the TARDIS landed. The moment the time machine was stable, he ran for the doors, past the confused human.

"You can't go out there!" The girl yelled at him. "It's not safe!"

The Guardian walked to the doors, checking her Staser as she went. "Safe is relative when the Doctor is around," she said to the girl.

Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor paced in frustration. "I lost the signal. I got so close!"

While the girl distracted the Doctor with questions about the TARDIS, the Guardian looked around, searching for some place the control signal could have been coming from. She moved away from the TARDIS to get a better view, and also to avoid getting distracted herself by the girl's ignorant questions. Humans.

Going by the plastic head, it had to have been the Nestene Consciousness. Great, first adventure with the Doctor, and it had to involve a species whose planet she destroyed during the Time War.

She shook her head a tiny bit. Control signal. They'd had to move quite far, so it would have to be huge. She turned in a circle, scanning the cityscape. There. The gigantic lit-up wheel. Perfect size.

"What's it got against us?" The girl was asking.

"Not every species invades a planet just because they have a personal grudge." The Guardian responded. "Your planet is barely noticeable to the higher species right now. Haven't had a chance to annoy anybody."

Rose glared at the Guardian, about to say something when the Doctor interrupted.

"The Nestene Consciousness loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth: dinner!"

The Guardian winced. Clearly he had no idea that she was the one who destroyed the Nestene home planet. Perhaps that was why she forgave him for Time-Locking Gallifrey—they both had done their duty to protect the Universe.

"Any way of stopping it?"

"Finally," the Guardian muttered. "The human begins asking the real questions."

The girl overheard, and shot the Guardian another glare as the Doctor held up a test-tube filled with blue liquid.

"Anti-plastic," he said.

"Anti-plastic?"

"Anti-plastic," the Doctor confirmed. He began looking around. "But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"You don't." The Guardian walked over to him.

"Hold on. Hide what?"

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?"

The Doctor started walking towards the transmitter, but without noticing. "Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London."

"A huge metal circular structure," the Guardian said leadingly.

The Doctor stopped with his back to the transmitter. "Like a dish. Like a wheel."

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "Radial. Close to where you're standing."

He still didn't get it. "Must be completely invisible." He muttered. The Doctor finally noticed the Guardian's frustrated look. "What?" He glanced at Rose, who had apparently figured it out too. "What?"

The Guardian shot her an approving look. The human was smarter than she seemed.

The Doctor looked behind him, only to turn back without noticing. "What?"

The Guardian just rolled her eyes, so he looked back again. "Guardian, what is it? What?"

"How long have I been trying to teach you to notice everything, instead of waiting for it to hit you over the head like that _dish_ you are looking for?"

The Doctor turned back once more, but this time, he looked a second longer. He turned to the Guardian. "Oh."

She nodded sarcastically. "Yes."

He glanced back once more. "Fantastic," he said with a grin, then took off running down the bridge.

The Guardian watched Rose follow after him and rolled her eyes. The Nestene Consciousness was bound to be quite cross, and—with the Doctor's luck—would find that vial of anti-plastic quickly. They would need a quick getaway.

She ran into the TARDIS. Now that she knew where the transmission was coming from, she could narrow down exactly where the Nestene Consciousness was hiding. Apparently, the TARDIS agreed that back-up would be necessary, as the old time machine did most of the flying itself.

When it set down, the Guardian smiled at the rotor. "Thank you, old girl." She ran out the open doors. The TARDIS had set down on a parapet beside the river, next to a set of stairs and a large manhole entrance. She leaned against the TARDIS doors and waited.

Five minutes later, the Doctor and the blonde appeared, both out of breath from running. The human looked disappointed to see her, while the Doctor's face brightened. The Guardian simply pointed at the manhole entrance.

"Coming?" The Doctor asked.

"You won't get very far with peaceful negotiations if I'm in there. Last I heard, the Nestene Consciousness had a very large reward out for my death."

The Doctor frown, confused. "Why?"

"Just go." The Guardian nearly snapped. This was not the time to be discussing her past. "Signal the TARDIS if you need back up."

With reluctant nod, the Doctor opened the manhole and he and Rose climbed down. The Guardian reentered the TARDIS and returned to her abandoned cleaning.

Several minutes later, an alarm started beeping. The Guardian hurried down to the console. Something was trying to hijack the TARDIS.

"Not going to happen. Let's show them what we can do, old girl." One quick hop and she materialized exactly where the Nestene wanted them.

She heard panicked banging on the doors. "Let them in, old girl."

The doors burst open. The blonde ran in, followed by a young black man who looked a fair amount like the plastic head that was still in a hardened puddle on the console. Wasn't his name… Mickey?

"We need to go, now!" The blonde tried to press a button, but the time machine shocked her. "He said we should go without him."

The Guardian glared at the human. "The Doctor may be noble, but he's a noble idiot." She hurried to the door. "Not leaving him!"

She stepped out of the TARDIS doors to see the Doctor struggling with two plastic dummies on the level below, one of the dummies holding the anti-plastic. She rolled her eyes. Just as she expected.

He looked back to see her, his eyes full of regret. She shook her head. Now was most definitely _not_ the time for that.

"Oi! Nestene Consciosness!" She shouted. With a running leap, she flipped through the air and landed right beside the dummy holding the anti-plastic. She kicked its legs out from underneath it and shoved it into the vat filled with the Consciousness.

She looked over to the Doctor to see that he had flipped the other dummy over his shoulder and into the vat also. She joined him, his hand taking hers as they watched the Nestene Consciousness scream and glow with a blue light.

"That was good." He said, impressed despite having seen her in action many times before.

She smirked. "Well, I could have gone for less showy, but there was hardly going to be a chain or rope hanging around that was long enough for me to swing by and still get the job done."

"Well, now we're in trouble."

"Just the way you like it." The Guardian grinned in response to his grin.

They ran back to the TARDIS as the room began exploding.

"What is it with you and explosions?!" The Guardian yelled.

"I don't know!" He laughed.

They ducked into the TARDIS, the Guardian slamming the doors shut. The time machine took off on her own.

The Doctor hurried over to the phone on the console and dialed a number. "Hello, UNIT? Just calling in a tip. You may want to do some clean-up under the London Eye. There were several explosions, and a rather large creature of living plastic." He hung up the call, turning to the two humans.

The Guardian went back to her cleaning. The young man looked terrified enough. They hardly needed to add bloody walls to the whole experience.

The moment the TARDIS landed, the boy was out the door, holding his head as though in pain. The girl followed, pulling out her phone.

The Doctor walked over to the Guardian. _"You okay?"_

The Guardian smirked down at him. _"Check on the humans."_

He didn't move. _"The Nestene Conscious said something... about its home planet being destroyed."_

She stiffened.

 _"That it was deliberately destroyed. By the Weapon."_

 _"Check on the humans,"_ she repeated. She turned back to her cleaning.

A moment later, she heard the Doctor walk away and out the door. She gave the now-bloodless wall one final swipe with the cloth and climbed down. She walked over to the console.

She didn't look up when she heard the Doctor walk back in a minute or two later. _"I don't want to talk about the War. About my part in it. I did things that should make it impossible for me to sleep at night, but instead I feel nothing. No regret. No pain. Like all of that was done to someone else."_ She sighed. _"Done by someone else."_

She finally looked at him, at the sadness in his eyes. _"You can travel the Universe making amends for all those you couldn't save. But how the hell am I supposed to make amends for all those I killed when I don't even feel guilty?"_

 _"You sound like you feel guilty."_ The Doctor pointed out.

 _"Only because you are looking at me with such disappointment."_ The Guardian responded. _"I feel guilty because you are disappointed in me, not because I feel like I did anything wrong."_

 _"I'm_ _disappointed_ _that you don't feel like you can be open with me_ _about what happened to you during the War."_

 _"Hell is what happened."_ The Guardian snapped. _"The War turned into Hell, and my life along with it."_ She shot him an accusing look. _"And you abandoned Gallifrey until I found you on Karn."_

 _"I'm here now, Amadahy."_ The Doctor whispered, seemingly realizing what she was really saying. _"And I'm not going to abandon you again."_

The Guardian moved away so that he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. "Let's go someplace else." She said, changing the subject. "Show me this Universe that we both fought so hard to protect."

She saw the Doctor frown, disappointed, and look as though he were going to say something. She stiffened, waiting for it. But then he just moved to a different part of the console.

"What do you say to seeing a bit of Earth's history?"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **I'm back! So, here you get a bit of an idea of how the Guardian interacts with humans and the Doctor. Also, yes, the TARDIS is a lot more interactive in this fanfic!**

 **Quick disclaimers: My Guardian is not related to any other Time Lady-OCs by that name. Also, I have read Lizzexx's "The Academic Series". At first glance, yes, there are similarities between the Guardian and the Professor, mostly because I was inspired by Lizzexx, but as we find out more about the Guardian, the differences will become more obvious.**

 **Next time: The Doctor does not take her to see the Earth burn right after he burned their planet. Where does he take her instead. (It was a really fun episode to write!)**


	3. Chapter 3: The Unquiet Dead

**I don't own Doctor Who. More's the pity.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _"_ _Hold that one down!"_ The Doctor shouted over the crashing and banging of the TARDIS's flight.

 _"_ _That's the wrong one! So is the one you're holding down!"_ The Guardian shouted back.

 _"_ _I think I know how to fly my own TARDIS!"_

 _"_ _One would think!"_ She shouted back.

The Doctor jumped back as the TARDIS shocked him. "Ow!" He shook his hands and flexed them. The Guardian took advantage of his distraction and started hitting various controls that she knew were correct. The flight smoothed out immediately.

 _"_ _See."_ She turned to a rather put-out looking Doctor. _"I told you which ones were correct. You may have spent a thousand years rattling about time and space in this TARDIS, but I actually learned how to fly one."_

 _"_ _So did I."_ The Doctor defended.

The Guardian snorted. _"How much attention did you give those classes?"_ At the Doctor's slightly sheepish look, the Guardian tapped her forehead. _"Eidetic memory. And it was the only Academy class I was ever allowed to take. Of course I paid attention."_

The Doctor smiled at the little piece of herself that she had shared. They had agreed to only sharing bits and pieces as they felt comfortable, just like they had in the early days. He had known that she hadn't gone to the Academy, but he hadn't known about the TARDIS-piloting classes.

 _"_ _Well, then! What do you want to see?"_

The Guardian thought for a moment before smiling. _"You've told me so much about Earth Christmas."_

The Doctor's grin widened. _"And I know just the place. Earth. Naples. 1860. How does that sound?"_ Naples was always romantic, and even more so during Christmas. And the fashions of the 1860s would look good on her…

The Guardian smirked. _"Anything sounds good to me."_

The Doctor continued grinning as he punched in the coordinates. _"Then you go to the wardrobe and get yourself a dress. You'd start a riot with what you're wearing right now."_ He glanced at her fitted top and trousers. Not that he was complaining…

 _"_ _I'm not wearing a dress. Last time I wore a dress around you, I had to save you from some very cross Androzani_ _s_ _."_

 _"_ _How was I supposed to know they weren't bluffing?!"_ The Doctor frowned, remembering that little incident in his fourth incarnation.

The Guardian snorted in disbelief. _"Androzani_ _s_ _can't lie."_

 _"_ _Any species can lie, just sometimes by its by omission."_

She lifted one eyebrow and crossed her arms. _"Who finds a loophole in a threat to burn a planet?"_

He tried to find a clever response, but couldn't. _"Go find a dress. The TARDIS will help you choose one from the right era."_

The Guardian smirked and walked to the door to the hall. Mumbling to himself about lying Androzanis, the Doctor finished typing in the coordinates. A moment later, he felt the thud of the TARDIS landing. He ran over to the doors and glanced out at the Victorian buildings and falling snow. Absolutely perfect.

He hurried through the TARDIS to his room, which the old time machine had shifted to be just outside the console room. He quickly found a new jumper and went back to the console room, busying himself with some of the random wiring for the next half an hour or so.

 _"_ _Why is it that I have to dress for the time period, whereas you can walk out those doors looking exactly as you always do?"_

 _"_ _I changed my jumper."_ He nearly hit his head sitting up.

The Guardian had managed to find a dark pink, almost red, off-the-shoulder gown. It was silk, but with very little trimming, lending the dress an air of sophisticated simplicity. Her hair had somehow been curled and left in a half-up, half-down style.

 _"_ _The TARDIS refused to give me anything but dresses to chose from. Thanks for that."_ She commented drily. With a slight air of sarcasm, she spun around, making the dress flare out a little.

"Blimey..." The Doctor breathed. _"You look beautiful."_

She smiled a little at that. _"Thank you. This may be the last time you get me in a dress, especially if things go as I expect."_

 _"_ _What do you mean?"_ The Doctor asked, a little annoyed at her lack of faith in his abilities to avoid disaster.

 _"_ _You are a danger magnet."_

The Doctor offered her his arm, which she took with rolled eyes. _"Christmas Eve, 1_ _860 awaits you, my Lady Amadahy. A nice,_ _quiet_ _Christmas Eve."_

"Do you want to wager on that?" She asked in English as they stepped out onto the snowy streets of Naples.

"If I'm right, and this date all goes as I have planned, which is quiet, then I get to fly the TARDIS for a month without any interference."

"Done." She smirked. "And the same goes for if I'm right."

The Doctor spotted a man selling newspapers. "Oh, look." He pulled the Guardian over to the man and bought a paper, glancing at the date. His grin dropped.

"Why am I not surprised?" She smirked. "You got the coordinates wrong, didn't you?"

"Why did it have to be Cardiff?" The Doctor mumbled.

"Are you sure that you don't want to cancel our bet?"

"Certainly not." He responded quickly. From the Guardian's knowing smirk, he knew it had been too quick.

"Come along, Doctor. Let's find you some trouble."

The Doctor chuckled, just enjoying hearing her laugh, even if it was only a little. It almost didn't matter if he lost the bet. Almost. "Why is it so hard to believe that I just want a nice, quiet time in Cardiff with you?"

Suddenly, they heard screams from inside one of the buildings. The Guardian rolled her eyes at the Doctor's obvious excitement. "That is why." She took off running towards the screams.

"That's more like it!" He grinned at how fast the Guardian was running. If he was a danger magnet, she was even more so. He followed her to the building as screaming people poured out.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They fought their way inside to find a screaming blue mist-like creature flying around a rapidly-emptying theater. A middle-aged man stood on the stage, calling for order, claiming it was a light show. In the middle of the empty seats, a pale old woman stood, the mist clearly coming from her.

"Fantastic." The Doctor ran over to the middle-aged man.

"Don't you just love new things?" The Guardian called after him sarcastically. She watched as the creature seemed to completely leave the old woman and she slumped over into the seats. An older man and a young woman ran over to the body and collected her.

She glanced over at the Doctor, who seemed to be getting a tongue-lashing from the man on the stage. She smirked a little, then followed the man and the girl as they carried out the limp woman right out of the theatre, to an undertaker's carriage outside.

The Guardian slipped up beside the carriage as they finished loading the old woman into the back. "So, what do you think you're doing?"

She noticed the man slip around the other side of the hearse, while the girl stammered in surprise. "Oh, it's a tragedy, ma'am. Don't worry yourself."

The Guardian tried slipping around the girl, but she blocked her view inside the carriage.

"Me and the master will deal with it."

The Guardian winced at the word "master", like the girl was some sort of slave. She pushed the girl out of the way and touched the old woman's face. She was long dead.

The Guardian weighed her options. Right now, it seemed the best idea was to let herself get captured, and lead the Doctor to these people. Clearly they knew something about what was going on.

On the other hand, she could always follow them with the Doctor.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her waist, and a cloth was shoved over her nose. Decision made. The Guardian stopped herself from breathing in the sweet-alcohol aroma, but gave a small fight just for appearance's sake before pretending to faint.

It really wouldn't do for these people to know chloroform wouldn't work on her.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Meanwhile, in the theatre, the Doctor watched as the blue creature flew into one of the gas lamps and disappeared. "Gas! It's made of gas." He muttered to himself.

Suddenly, he looked around and noticed that the Guardian was nowhere to be seen. He ran outside just in time to see the older man and young woman shoving a dark-haired woman in a dark pink dress in the back of an undertaker's carriage.

"Guardian!" He shouted, running towards the carriage as it drove off.

The man from the stage had followed him, continuing his accusations of the Doctor having something to do with the creature.

Distracted, the Doctor responded, "Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks." He spotted an empty carriage. "Oi, you! Follow that hearse!"

The Doctor climbed in, the man from the stage following him, but stopping at the open door.

"I can't do that, sir." The driver protested.

"Why not?" The Doctor snapped, frustrated. He could feel the Guardian's presence in his mind, getting further and further away. If he lost her because of these stupid apes...

"I'll tell you why not." The man from the stage sputtered, indignant. "I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and grabbed the man's arm, pulling him into the carriage. "Move!" He shouted to the driver. "Come on, you're losing her!"

The driver took off. "Is everything in order, Mr. Dickens?" He called into the coach.

Frowning, the Doctor looked around for a third person, just as the man beside him responded. "No! It is not!"

"What did he say?" No. He couldn't have just stolen the carriage of THE Charles Dickens.

The man turned to the Doctor. "Let me say this first: I'm not without a sense of humour."

"Dickens? Charles Dickens?"

"Yes," the man snapped.

"The Charles Dickens?" the Doctor asked, at the same time the coachman inquired about whether or not to remove him.

"Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are." The Doctor spoke fast. He had to keep Charles Dickens from throwing him out. Any other time, he would be ecstatic to meet one of his favorite authors. But not when the Guardian's life was in danger. "Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. _Great Expectations_ , _Oliver Twist_ and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?"

" _A Christmas Carol_?" Dickens supplied, clearly moved by the praise.

"No, no, no, the one with the trains. 'The Signal Man', that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius."

"You want me to get rid of him, sir?" The driver tried again.

Charles Dickens chuckled as he called back, "Er, no. I think he can stay."

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Charles. Can I call you Charles? There's a woman in that hearse. Kidnapped by those people. She's very important to me, and I need to get her back."

Dickens frowned. "Who exactly is in that hearse? Your wife?"

The Doctor's smile dimmed a bit. "No, but I want to make her my wife. Just as soon as she is ready to be." He sighed in frustration. "I promised her a nice, quiet Christmas, and now she's in danger and it's my fault."

Dickens gave the younger man a knowing look. "Why, then, are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!"

The Doctor grinned as the carriage picked up speed. "Attaboy, Charlie!"

Dickens frowned at him. "Nobody calls me Charlie."

"The ladies do." The Doctor smirked knowingly.

"How do you know that?"

"Oh, didn't I say? I'm your biggest fan!"

He completely missed the confused look on Charles Dickens' face.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian let the man—apparently a Mister Sneed—and the girl, Gwyneth, drag her through an old house.

"The poor woman's still alive, sir! What're we going to do with her?"

"I don't know!" Mr. Sneed snapped as they lay the Guardian down on a cloth-covered table. "I didn't plan any of this, did I? It isn't my fault if the dead won't stay dead."

"Then whose fault is it, sir?" Gwyneth asked quietly. "Why is this happening to us?"

The Guardian waited until she heard both of them walk away and lock the door, then she sat up. So, neither one of them knew anything. She frowned. That was a waste of a trip. It was fortunate that she didn't mind laying next to a dead body for the twenty-minute carriage ride. But now she was trapped in a locked room. Not too difficult to get out of, but it would still make quite the mess.

She turned around suddenly when she heard the gas in one of the lamps flare, and then whispered voices. She watched as the gas creature animated a red-haired young man in one of the coffins.

Great.

He climbed out of the coffin stiffly, growling menacingly the whole time.

Double great.

Distantly, she could hear the Doctor's voice, nattering about something in the walls.

Oh, for the love of Clom, could that man not stay on task?

Then the old woman was reanimated. The Guardian rolled her eyes. This day just kept getting better and better. She should get three months of uninterrupted piloting for this.

The two reanimated dead slowed slowly towards her. Okay, they were already dead, so killing them wasn't going to do anything. Better to incapacitate them. Swiftly, she moved forward, kicking the man's feet out from underneath him. The moment he hit the ground, she broke both of his legs, then did the same to old woman.

Jumping free of their grasping hands, she ran back the door, cursing as the old woman caught her dress. "Every time I wear a dress..." She kicked the old woman's hand, hearing another snap.

With another curse for her dress, the Guardian pulled the skirt up to her waist and kicked the lock right out of the door, grateful that she talked the TARDIS into finding a pair of sturdy boots to wear with her dress, rather than the ridiculous heels that were in fashion at this time.

She pulled the door open and ran down the hall, only to run directly into the Doctor. "Well, you took your time."

"I see that you're still alive." He countered, then pulled her back into the room with an arm around her waist. He took one look at the splintered door and the reanimated corpses dragging themselves along the floor with their hands and nodded at her. "You've been busy."

"Yeah, I've decided that you owe me an extra two months of piloting for this one."

The man from the theatre rushed in behind the,. "It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence."

The Guardian rolled her eyes as the Doctor responded, "No, we're not. The dead are walking."

"Where'd you pick this one up?" She asked him.

"Guardian, Charles Dickens. Charles, meet the Guardian."

"Guardian?" The man squinted at her. "What are you a guardian of, my lady?"

Oh, dear. The Doctor just had to chose a culture where women were looked down upon. She smiled tensely at Charles Dickens. "Most days? Him."

"Oi!" The Doctor protested, before stepping forward and addressing the corpses. "My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"

The man responded, several voices mixed in with his, a child-like female voice quickly becoming the strongest. "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us." The voices screamed as the gas vacated the corpses, and returned to the gas lamps. The two bodies fell against the floor, limp.

"You're right." The Doctor said, looking at the Guardian. "I'm a danger magnet."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Several minutes later, the Doctor stood in the parlour with one arm around the Guardian's waist still—partly because he liked the way that felt, mostly keep her from launching herself at the undertaker, Mr. Sneed, as he justified attempting to drug her with chloroform, feeling her up, and locking her in a room to die.

If he were to be honest, he would have loved nothing more than to strangle the man himself, especially when the Guardian talked about where his hands had gone with a bluntness that scandalized the Victorian members of the party, but they needed answers.

He had had enough of the old man's wittering, though.

"Just tell us about the gas, Mr. Sneed." He snapped. "My patience is wearing thin, and so is the Guardian's."

"It's not my fault! It's this house!" The man cried, seeing the fury in the man and the woman's faces.

"You're really going to try and blame the house?" The Guardian asked, incredulous.

Mr. Sneed nodded, then continued quietly. "It's always had a reputation. Haunted."

The Doctor heard the Guardian mutter something about humans and their superstitions, and he couldn't help but grin.

"But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs—" There was a disapproving sniff from Charles. "—um, _dear departed_ started getting restless."

Another disapproving sniff from Charles. "Tommyrot."

"You witnessed it!" Sneed cried. "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on the scraps."

Just then, the maid, Gwyneth, walked over carrying two teacups. She set them on the mantle beside the Doctor and the Guardian. "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it. And hot water and lemon, ma'am, since you don't like tea."

The Doctor felt the Guardian stiffen beside him. _He_ didn't even know that she didn't like tea. Granted, there hadn't been much chance for him to find out on Gallifrey, since tea wasn't really all that common there, but how did the maid know, if he didn't?

Though curious, he refocused on Mr. Sneed just as he was talking about how the old woman had planned to go to Charles' performance before she died.

Charles scoffed and stood. "Morbid fancy."

"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor replied. Surely a brilliant mind like that of Charles Dickens wasn't going to deny the evidence right in front of him?

"I saw nothing but an illusion."

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste our time." The Guardian replied. "Just shut up." She ignored the offended Charles and turned her attention back to Sneed. "What about the gas?"

Mr. Sneed winced. "That's—that's new, ma'am. Never seen anything like it."

The Guardian looked back at the Doctor for an explanation. "Means it's getting stronger. The rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

Mr. Sneed asked what the rift was at the same time that the Guardian said, "You knew there was a rift here, and you still didn't call off our bet?"

"Maybe I just liked the idea of losing a bet to you." he teased, kissing her hair. He enjoyed her surprised expression, before turning his attention back to Sneed. "A rift is a weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations."

Charles finally left the room, slamming the door behind him as he went.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul."

"Less poetry, Mr. Sneed." The Guardian grumbled. The Doctor grinned.

Mr. Sneed cleared his throat and cast a wary glance at the Guardian. "Truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

The Doctor was pretty sure he heard the Guardian huff, "Victorian values."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

While the Doctor tried to talk sense into Charles, the Guardian sought out Gwyneth in the pantry. Upon seeing the tea things waiting to be washed, the Guardian moved over and began the work.

"Please, ma'am." Gwyneth protested. "You shouldn't be helping. It's not right."

"Never mind that, Gwyneth." The Guardian looked at the girl. Her Time Lady senses told her that the fate of this world rested on this simple Welsh maid. "How did you end up working for a man like Mr. Sneed? Did you go to school?" Her speech didn't sound very educated, but that could have been the sound of educated speech in Cardiff at this time.

Gwyneth smiled, but there was an edge of offense to it. "Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper."

Once a week? "That's all?" Certainly, it was more than she ever did, but that didn't seem like a lot.

Gwyneth didn't seem to notice her confusion. "We did sums and everything." She leaned a bit closer and dropped her voice. "To be honest, I hated every second."

The Guardian smiled weakly. What she would have given to go to the Academy, to know even half the things about the Universe that the Doctor did. "I wouldn't know much about that, Gwyneth. I was never sent to school. At least, not what you'd call school."

Gwyneth winced a little and frowned, something… knowing… in her eyes. Then her expression shifted to one of pity. "Poor, poor child. To lose your mam at such a young age." She murmured.

"How old were you when your mother died, Gwyneth?" The Guardian asked, confused as to why the girl would be speaking about herself in the third person.

Gwyneth looked startled. "I lost my mam and dad to the flu when I was twelve. But you were much younger. Five's such a tender age. Then to be sent away by your dad." She murmured the last bit, speaking almost to herself.

The Guardian stiffened. "How did you know that?" Her voice hardened against her will.

Gwyneth looked flustered. "Oh, I don't know. Must have been the Doctor." She pretend to busy herself.

The Guardian watched her carefully. "I don't talk about my family, even with him. How do you know all of this?"

The girl smiled reassuringly. "Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, ma'am?"

The Guardian finally smiled a little. "No, I don't have any servants. I was a servant of sorts myself, before I started traveling with the Doctor." She watched for the girl's reaction.

But Gwyneth didn't seem surprised. "And you've come such a long away."

The Guardian cast Gwyneth a curious glance. Just how much did the girl see? Clearly she was a visionary, or at least a minor one.

Gwyneth seemed to take her curiosity for permission. "You're from so very far away. From a place with two suns. A beautiful city under a dome of glass. All those people rushing about in long robes, living so long. And those machines! Those tiny machines with those big rooms inside. The ones that fly through time as well as space." Gwyneth's voice took on a note of horror, and the Guardian's hearts and gaze sank with each word that she whispered. "The things you have seen. The things you will see. The people you will lose—oh, those most precious to you. The darkness. The cruelty of your master. The big bad wolf!"

The Guardian's gaze flew back up to meet Gwyneth's. "Where did you hear those words. 'Bad wolf'. Where did you hear them?" Her voice was louder than it needed to be.

Gwyneth backed away, shaking, terrified at the Guardian's reaction. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, ma'am!"

The Guardian put her hands up, so the girl could see she was not going to be struck. "I'm not angry, Gwyneth." She hesitated, then explained for the girl's sake. "Long ago, where I come from, in that strange world you saw with the two suns, another woman with a gift like yours told me those words. 'Bad wolf.' I've been trying to understand them for longer than you can imagine. But I didn't expect to hear them here, on Earth."

Gwyneth nodded, still shaking. "I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight. Told me to hide it."

"But it's getting stronger." Both women jumped and turned to see the Doctor standing in the doorway. "More powerful, is that right?"

Gwyneth nodded again. "All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head." She touched her forehead, like it hurt to remember.

"You grew up on top of the rift." The Doctor said quietly. "You're part of it. You're the key."

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists... table rappers… all sorts."

The Doctor looked at her compassionately. "Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

The Guardian shot him an annoyed look. "And what is that?"

"We're going to have a séance."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

An hour later, the five of them were still in the parlour. The Guardian sat to one side, thinking.

The Gelth. Yet another species that she had destroyed, only these ones didn't just lose their home planet, but their physical form too. What was the probability of meeting two species that she had wronged within her first two trips with the Doctor?

And both of them on Earth, no less.

The Guardian turned her attention to the other four people in the room. Gwyneth lying on the sofa, resting after allowing the Gelth to speak through her. Mr. Sneed was still trying to understand the whole thing, as was Charles. Only the Doctor seemed ready and determined to help the Gelth.

Now, if only the Guardian could just shake off the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that it was a bad idea.

As Gwyneth stirred, the Guardian moved over to her. "You'll be fine, Gwyneth. Just feel a bit dizzy."

"But my angels, ma'am. They came, didn't they? They need me?"

The Doctor spoke from behind the Guardian. "They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival."

"She needs a moment." The Guardian warned him. She could understand why he was so determined to get this done. This was a chance for some small redemption for her. So then why didn't it feel like that? Why did the Gelth's praising of the Doctor feel wrong?

Mr. Sneed asked the Doctor to explain the whole thing for the third time that hour. The Guardian just tuned out the entire conversation, going to the pantry to get a pitcher of water and a glass for Gwyneth. She timed her trip to return just as Charles spoke for the first time since Gwyneth fainted.

"Which is why they need the girl," he said.

"She can help." The Doctor nodded. "Living on the rift, she's become a part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge, and let them through."

"Incredible," Dickens sighed, still not quite believing it all. "Ghosts that are not ghosts, but beings from another world, who can only exist in our realm by inhabiting cadavers."

The Doctor nodded. "Good system. It might work. It's like recycling."

The Guardian poured Gwyneth a glass of water. "What do you say, Gwneth? It has to be your choice."

"The angels need me." Gwyneth replied confidently. "Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything." The Doctor said softly. "The Guardian is right. It's your decision, and yours alone."

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

The Doctor smiled. "We need to find the rift." His voice was confident again. "This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other."

The Guardian nodded. "Mr. Sneed, where is the place that most of the ghosts have been seen?"

Sneed thought for a moment. "That would be the morgue."

The Guardian's bad feeling became a hundred times worse.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Mr. Sneed led them down to a cold, corpse-filled basement.

"Urgh." The Doctor winced. "Talk about Bleak House."

No one spoke for a moment. Then, Charles whispered, "Doctor, I think the room is getting colder."

Whispers filled the air.

"Here they come," the Guardian said.

One of the Gelth, the girl with the young voice, appeared under a stone arch.

"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him."

"Don't you dare hurt her." The Guardian warned the creature.

Another flicker of alarm rose up when the Gelth didn't reply, but said, "Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

The Doctor moved from the back of the room. "We'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"

"My angels. I can help them live." She looked to the Doctor, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

He nodded. "Okay, where's the weak point?"

"Here, beneath the arch."

"Gwyneth," the Guardian took her arm as she moved toward the arch. The girl turned to her. The Guardian swallowed. "I can't promise you'll survive this. Just communicating with them exhausted you. Becoming a bridge between the two places might completely drain you." The Guardian took both of Gwyneth's hands. "I'm not saying this make you doubt. You are an intelligent young woman, and you deserve to know everything. If you want to back out, we can find another way to build a bridge."

Gwyneth smiled. "You're a kind woman, beneath that mask that you wear, the one that you show the world. Let me atone for some of the things you wish you could regret."

The Guardian blinked as Gwyneth released her hands and stepped beneath the arch, into the cloud created by the Gelth.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

Gwyneth stiffened, as did the Guardian. Something was wrong with the girl. The Doctor slipped his arm around the Guardian's shoulders.

"Yes," Gwyneth said. "I can see you. I can see you! Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me!" Gwyneth cried. "Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It is begun! The bridge is made!" As the Gelth spoke, Gwyneth opened her mouth and more Gelth came out, flying around the room. Then, the Guardian saw it. The fixed gaze of the girl, the lack of expression when she should be happy to save her angels.

"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." Suddenly, the blue gas turned to red flames and the apparition grew sharp teeth. "The Gleth will come through in force." Gone was the child's voice, replaced by a dark and demonic one.

"You said that you were few in number!" Charles protested.

"A few _billion_." The Gelth corrected. "And all of us in need of corpses."

The Guardian and the Doctor exchanged horrified looks before turning to see the Gelth reanimating the cadavers in the room.

"Oh, Gwyneth," Sneed whispered, before charging up to the girl. "Stop this! Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you."

"Mr. Sneed!" The Doctor shouted as a corpse grabbed the old man and snapped his neck. A moment later, a Gelth took him over.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." The Doctor said, staring at Mr. Sneed's possessed corpse.

"You think?!" The Guardian snapped, as Sneed spoke.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us."

"No!" Dickens breathed.

"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

The Doctor backed towards a metal gate, pulling the Guardian with him. "Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!"

"She can't." The Guardian told him. He looked at her, confused, but was distracted when the Gelth spoke again.

"Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."

"Doctor, I can't." Dickens stammered. "This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so—" A scream cut him off, and he ran up the stairs to the house.

The Doctor pulled the Guardian behind the metal gate, locking it with the sonic screwdriver. The corpses couldn't reach them, though they crowed outside the gate. Behind the Doctor and the Guardian was another iron grate, but this one was fixed into the stone. No way out.

"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor spat. He seethed.

"We don't want your pity. We want this world all it's flesh!"

"Not while I'm alive!" The Doctor snapped.

"Then live no more." The corpses reached through the doors.

"It's all my fault," the Doctor whispered. "I brought you here. I promised you a nice quiet Christmas on Earth, and yet here we are."

"Yes, this is your fault."

The Doctor flinched at her cold words.

"I could have incapacitated the corpses if you hadn't dragged me in here, Doctor." A part of her hated herself for what she was saying, but he had to know. "If we survive this, then never do that again. I've trained to fight for over fifteen hundred years. I've fought more trained assassins than this at once. But I can't do it from a weak point. Like this." She gestured to the alcove.

He looked away, ashamed. "So, because of me, we're going to die in a dungeon…" His expression turned horrified. "In Cardiff."

The Guardian nodded. "Well, I'm not going to die cowering in a corner. But first..." To the Doctor's shock, she pulled her dress off, revealing a black, strapless, corset-like top and dark trousers were beneath.

She rolled her eyes at his stunned look. "I was betting on there being danger. I was hardly going to leave the TARDIS without wearing something I could fight in. Now, ready?"

"No." She turned to the Doctor in surprise. _"Amadahy, I..._ "

Her eyes widened at the Gallifreyan words, at his use of her name. They had agreed to never speak Gallifreyan outside of the TARDIS, and to never use each other's names unless they were alone. And they often didn't use them even then.

"What?"

He seemed to struggle for a moment, before pulling her to himself and kissing her. The Guardian stiffened in surprise for a moment, before she wrapped her arms around his neck. When he pulled away, just an inch or two, her lips tried to follow his.

 _"Amadahy, I—_ "

"Doctor, Guardian!" Charles ran into view, behind the crowd of corpses.

"Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" He didn't even seem to notice the fact that they were embracing in a dark alcove.

"What're you doing?" The Doctor shouted back.

"So much for genius..." The Guardian muttered. For the love of Clom, did that man not realize how much danger he was in?"

Dickens ran over the wall, to a gas lamp. "Turn it all on! Flood the place!"

"Brilliant." The Doctor released the Guardian. He pulled his jacket off and handed it to her.

"The gas?" She rolled her eyes and put the far too-large coat on. Best to not scandalize poor Charles—he'd had enough for one night.

"Am I correct, Doctor?" Charles asked. "These creatures are gaseous."

The Guardian's eyes widened with understanding. "Oh… he _is_ brilliant! And in a lot of trouble!"

The corpses, including the two from upstairs, began moving slowly towards Charles, surrounding him and cutting off his escape.

"Plenty more!" The Doctor shouted and ripped a gas pipe from the wall inside the alcove.

With a scream, the Gelth began leaving the corpses. The bodies fell to the ground. The Doctor sonicked the gate open again, and the couple rushed back into the Gelth-filled room.

"Gwyneth, send them back." The Guardian called, hoping against logic that there was still some of the girl left that could hear her. "They're not angels; they lied to you, to us."

"Liars?" The Guardian's eyes widened at the emotion in Gwyneth's voice.

"Look at me," the Doctor said. He moved closer to Gwyneth, stepping over corpses. "If you mother could look down and see this, she'd tell you the same. She'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

Charles started choking.

"Charles, get out of here!" The Guardian pushed him towards the stairs. "We'll be fine."

"They're too strong," Gwyneth said.

"Gwyneth," the Guardian said. "The future of this planet depends on you."

"Remember that world you saw, Gwyneth? Our world? As fantastic as it was, the future of this planet is even more amazing. But none of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back." Gwyneth replied firmly. "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of matches.

"Leave that to me." The Doctor reached for the box, but the Guardian grabbed his hand.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor, but she's already dead."

He looked at the girl again in horror, but this time, he really _saw_ her.

"She's been dead since the moment the bridge was established."

He moved over to the girl and kissed her forehead. "Thank you, Gwyneth." He whispered.

Then he grabbed the Guardian's hand and they ran for the stairs. They ran through the house, barely making it out and away before a massive explosion demolished the building and threw them to the ground.

Charles ran over. As the Guardian stood, he finally noticed her different attire, and his eyes widened.

"She closed the rift." The Doctor said.

That seemed to distract him, as he turned back to the burning house and remarked sadly, "At such a cost. The poor child."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Charles followed them back to the TARDIS. The Doctor unlocked the doors while the Guardian turned to their companion.

"Now, Charles." The Guardian smiled at the man. "I need to get a change of clothes. So, I must bid you farewell."

Charles kissed her hand, and she stepped into the TARDIS. The Doctor started as she threw his jacket back at him from just inside, hitting him directly in the face.

Charles chuckled while he pulled the coat back on. "What are you doing to do now?" He asked.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London," Charles said with conviction. "Quite literally post-haste. This is not time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

The Doctor grinned, remembering the bitter man from earlier that night. "You've cheered up."

"Exceedingly!" He chuckled. "This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor! I'm inspired! I must write about them!"

The Doctor smiled sadly, knowing what the future really held for the man. He would be dead in six months. "Good luck with it." He forced himself to say, offering his hand for Charles to shake. "Nice to meet you. Fantastic." The Doctor started to move towards the TARDIS.

"Doctor, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see." The Doctor pointed at the TARDIS. "In the shed."

Dickens shook his head. "Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this: who are you?"

The Doctor hesitated, wondering how much he should share with the man. "We're just friends passing through," he finally settled on.

"But you have such knowledge of future times."

The Doctor stiffened.

"I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

The Doctor grinned. There was something he could answer. "Oh, yes."

Charles looked at him in shock. "For how long?"

"Forever."

Charles looked as though he didn't quite believe him, but said nothing.

The Doctor pointed to the TARDIS. "Right. Shed." He moved to the door and started to open it.

"In the box? Both of you?" Dickens asked him, scandalized. "But… she's changing her attire!"

"Down boy." The Doctor replied seriously, with a short nod, then a grin. "See ya."

He finally stepped inside the TARDIS, and promptly fall back against the doors.

The Guardian was waiting for him, still in her old clothes.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Let's give old Charlie boy one last surprise." The Doctor moved over to the console and pulled the lever to dematerialize.

The Guardian waited for him to speak first, but he didn't. _"You kissed me."_

He stiffened. _"Yes, I did."_

 _"You haven't done that since the last time I saw you before the War."_ She said quietly.

He sighed, not looking at her. _"I_ _know."_ There was a note of resignation to his voice. Or was it regret?

 _"I thought you hated me, hated what I had become after what you said to me on Karn."_

He suddenly gripped the edge of the console, his knuckles turning white. He took several deep breaths, then: _"I could never hate you, Amadahy."_

 _"Then do you still love me?"_ The Guardian whispered.

He looked up, his gaze snapping to hers. _"Of course, I do. I'm just… trying to give you space. We both need to heal from the War."_ He looked away and sighed in frustration, making the Guardian flinch.

 _"Look..."_ He said. _"We promised each other long ago that we would find a way to get married, right?"_

The Guardian stiffened. He was rethinking that promise, wasn't he? _"Yes,"_ she whispered.

 _"Then let's make it official."_

 _"What?"_ She blinked. _"You don't mean…?"_

He shook his head, chuckling a bit. _"No, we don't have to get married right now. No, let's make our engagement official. Tell everyone we see. Both of us call the other our fiances."_

The Guardian blinked back tears. _"That's foolish."_

 _"So was falling in love with the Guardian of the Lord President, the one Lady on Gallifrey the High Council would never allow to marry. Over a thousand years later and I still don't regret it."_

The Guardian smiled, one or two tears escaping.

With a grin, the Doctor moved over and took her hands. _"Best do this properly. Lady Amadahy of Arcadia, do you consent to one day become my wife?"_

She bit her lip, trying to control her tears, and nodded. _"Yes."_ She took a deep breath. _"Lord Eltanin of Lungbarrow, do you consent to one day become my husband?"_

He grinned. _"With both my hearts, yes."_

Then he gently pulled her closer and kissed her again.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **So, we start to learn a bit more about the Guardian. I wonder why she was never allowed to join the Academy?**

 **As for the Androzani bit… I literally have no idea if the series (old or new) ever said anything about their ability to lie, but I could totally see the Doctor being the ONE person who could find a loophole when someone threatens to burn a planet.**

 **I shortened the conversation in Dickens' coach because I couldn't see the Doctor getting super excited about meeting Charles Dickens when the Guardian is in danger. But, of course, being the Doctor, he still gets distracted once he catches up to them…**

 **I'll admit, I had a ton of fun writing the scene with the two zombies. During the week days, I'm writing another book where the main character is super afraid of everything, so the Guardian as been a welcome break from that with her "come at me, bro" attitude.**

 **Also, I decided that this Guardian's (number has yet to be revealed) theme is "Guardians" by Two Steps From Hell. When I chose themes for all the Doctor/Guardian pairings, I tried to go for songs with titles that also fit the events.**

 **And… since we finally have an official engagement, I get to announce their love theme: "A Thousand Years". Which it quite appropriate, considering that they have literally been in love for a thousand years. But more on that next chapter.**

 **Oh, and there was a tiny hint at the time that the Guardian can't remember (a couple of them actually). Did anyone catch them? Well, you'll have to wait until the next book to find out if you didn't. (*evil laugh*)**

 **Next time: A crash landing, a mad blonde, and a space pig.**


	4. Chapter 4: Aliens of London

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _"_ _Are you sure you don't want help?"_ The Guardian asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the metal bar surrounding the console area.

 _"_ _I don't need help."_ The Doctor replied, pressing a bunch of random buttons.

The Guardian shook her head at his attempts to look like he knew what he was doing. They had spent the last three months actually getting where they wanted to, but only because she was piloting without his interfering, courtesy of their bet. This was his first time piloting again.

It seemed like he wanted to make up for lost time.

The TARDIS landed with a wheezing thud, and the Guardian moved over to the console. The Doctor took her hand and dragged her over to the doors.

 _"_ _My Lady Guardian, I give you…"_ He pulled both doors open dramatically. "Poosh!"

The Guardian stepped out the doors and into a courtyard on what was clearly 21st Century Earth. She smirked when the Doctor continued, not noticing where they were.

"… let me tell you, these people really know how to throw a party. I was once here for a party that had been going for twelve years!"

"Doctor." She said.

He finally looked around. His smile dropped. "Oh."

The Guardian was about to comment when they heard a cry of "Doctor!" The couple turned to see a familiar blonde running towards them.

"Oh, for the love of Clom, it's the blonde pudding brain again." The Guardian muttered.

The Doctor sent her a disapproving look, to which she rolled her eyes. The Doctor turned to the human—Lily? Violet? Chrysanthemum? One of those Earth flower names.

"You're back." She said, panting slightly from her run.

The Guardian eyes the short distance with a trace of disbelief. How could a human get so out of breath from such a short run? "Clearly." She chose to say to the girl. Humans tended to get offended if she mentioned their lack of stamina.

"Yes, but—but, you're back here."

The Doctor frowned. "How long has it been for you?"

"A year." Rose replied, just as an older blonde woman hurried out of one of the buildings.

"Rose?" She called. "Who is that?" As she drew nearer, her eyes widened with fury. "You?!"

The Guardian turned to the Doctor with one eyebrow raised. "What did you do to her?"

He frowned at her, clearly offended. "Why do you—"

"Last time he was here, everything goes mental, shop dummies try to kill me, one of my best mates dies, and my daughter becomes severely depressed!"

The Doctor squirmed as the woman stood on her toes to get in his face. "Sorry..." he muttered.

"The hours I've watched her waste away—days and weeks and months! Losing one job after another. She won't tell me why. Just spends all day on the internet, writing things down in a notebook that she won't let me see."

The Guardian glanced at the blonde. She did seem paler, thinner than she had the last time they met.

"A whole year!" Rose's mum continued, still in the Doctor's face. "And then, the first sign of any interest I see in her other than that notebook, and she's running outside to meet you."

She shoved a blue notebook at the Doctor's chest. Rose lunged forward, but the Guardian grabbed her.

"What did you do to my daughter?!"

"Ah, well..." The Doctor stammered, glancing at the Guardian for help. She just nodded her head at the younger human, whom she was still restraining.

He turned his attention back to the fuming older blonde. "You see, we travel a lot, and I met Rose quite by accident last time I was here. She helped us solve a bit of a problem that we had, then expressed an interest in joining us. I turned her down, and I haven't seen her since. Actually, meeting her today was an accident."

"Oh, I bet it was." The woman scoffed. "How old are you? Forty? Forty-five? Did you find her on the Internet? Do you go online and pretend that you're a doctor so you can lure away innocent young girls?"

The Guardian cast a glance at the girl she was holding back. 'Innocent' was not a word she would apply to the human. If that notebook held what she suspected it might, then 'obsessed' was probably a better word.

"I am a doctor!"

"Then prove it!" The woman spat and she suddenly slapped him. "Stitch this, mate!"

The Guardian released Rose, who darted for the blue notebook, and grabbed the older human's wrist. "Don't touch him again."

The fury in the woman's eyes didn't dim. "And who are you then?"

"His fiancee." The Guardian roughly released the woman's wrist when her eyes widened in shock.

Behind her, she heard Rose sputter. "His what?!"

The Guardian stepped back a little to stand beside the Doctor and take his hand. "Allegra Shannon." She continued, giving the name that she had finally decided on. She had rather quickly figured out that most of the Universe tended to get rather confused when she introduced herself as "the Guardian". And since most species, humans especially, were annoying when they were confused, she dug around until she found a name that she could give on their travels.

She also realized that having a different name was a good idea because those who had heard of the Guardian were not known to be friendly once they realized who she was.

Or what she was.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Nearly an hour later, the Doctor and the Guardian had gotten free of Jackie Tyler. Much to the Guardian's frustration, Rose had insisted on following them. The TARDIS had all but thrown the girl out, forcing them to go to the roof of one of the buildings to talk.

The Guardian sighed in exasperation as Rose asked yet another question about where they had been. "Your mother is quite the piece of work, isn't she?" She interrupted.

"She slapped me!" The Doctor added. "Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."

"Your face." Rose laughed.

"It hurt!" The Doctor touched his cheek again, as though it still hurt.

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "Doctor, stop being an idiot."

Rose's laughter died. "When you nine hundred years..."

"That's my age."

The Guardian raised an eyebrow. Hardly. Last she had heard, he was 315 years older than her, making him 1909 years old. When had he begun lying about his age?

"You're nine hundred years old?" Rose stated incredulously.

The Doctor nodded. "The Guardian here is 585."

The Guardian rolled her eyes again, though her expression softened a little. They had been newly in love when she was 585, before the High Council had realized and forbidden them to continue their relationship. They had been happy when she was 585.

"Every conversation with you just goes mental." Rose sighed and stood. "There's no one else I can talk to. I saw that thing, the Nestene Consciousness, I know what really happened, but the news just said it was terrorism. I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows the truth, that aliens really do exist."

Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a horn behind them. The Guardian jumped behind the wall that they had been sitting on, dragging the Doctor down with her.

The trio watched as a small spaceship passed only about fifteen feet over them, heading for the city, black smoke trailing behind it. They watched as it flew all over the city.

"That's not right," the Guardian murmured, standing. That was not a crash pattern. It was weaving around too much. That was more like… she stilled. It looked more like someone was trying to get London's attention.

Her suspicions were further confirmed when it _happened_ to tear into the side of the massive clock tower the Doctor had once called Big Ben, before crashing in the river.

She glanced back as the Doctor and Rose stood. The Doctor had a ridiculous grin on his face.

"Oh, that's just not fair." Rose murmured.

The Doctor just laughed and grabbed the Guardian's hand, dragging her with him as they ran to the stairs.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The military had already closed down the streets, much to the thousands of drivers' frustration.

"It's blocked off." The Doctor said, disappointed. He noticed the Guardian toss him an annoyed look, which he grinned at.

"We're miles from the centre." Rose added. "The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down."

"I know!" The Doctor grinned even bigger. He took the Guardian's hand. "I can't believe we're here to see this. This is fantastic!"

He saw a bit of hesitation in her smile, which only over a thousand years of studying her expressions help him see, and he squeezed her hand reassuringly. They had tried to avoid races that she had personally wronged, but far too many of the higher species knew who she was. And if they had been involved in the Time War in any way at all, she ad probably done something to them.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Rose interrupted.

The Guardian snorted. "If he had tried to get here for this we would have ended up in a swamp on Metabelis Four."

"Oi!" He protested, even though he couldn't deny the truth of her statement. Granted, he didn't really want to. That was her way of teasing him, and he'd let her do it if she remained happy.

"You were the one who tried to take me to Poosh."

"Can you just focus?" Rose snapped, clearly annoyed at being ignored. "Do you recognize the ship?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?"

The Doctor started to shake his head, but the Guardian responded, "It didn't."

He looked at her in surprise. "It didn't?"

She nodded. "The flight path was wrong. The pilot was trying to get the attention of London, not keep his ship in the air."

That did not sound good.

"Oh," Rose said. "I'm so glad we've got you."

Why did it feel like she was saying that only to him? He cleared his throat, to distract both women. "I bet you are. This is what we travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us. Did you know that the two of us pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party? And the Trojan War! Believe me, history got that one wrong, because it wasn't Helen they were fighting over." He winked at the Guardian, who glared at him.

"I thought we promised never to speak of that again." She crossed her arms.

He shrugged. "It's not every man that can claim ancient kings started a war over his fiancee."

"Never mind that!" Rose cut in. "Let's go and see it. Never mind the traffic. We've got the TARDIS."

Had Rose forgotten that the TARDIS seemed to not like her at all? The Doctor frowned at the girl's attitude. "Better not. They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."

"Yeah, so? Yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice."

"Surprisingly enough, all kinds of people start watching during an emergency like this." The Guardian responded, not taking her eyes off the soldiers who were waving people away. "They even start to notice things. Which is why the TARDIS is staying where it is."

Rose glared at her. "So history's happening and we're stuck here."

"Yes, we are." The Doctor stated.

"We could always do what everybody else does."

The Doctor looked at Rose, confused.

"We could watch it on TV."

The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged horrified glances.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Back at Rose's mother's flat, the Doctor and the Guardian sat close to the TV, while Jackie and her friend, a Ru Chan, chattered away.

 _'Humans_ ,' the Guardian spoke to the Doctor telepathically. ' _One ship crash lands, and they are panicking. How would they handle an invasion?'_

The Doctor smiled at hearing her voice in his head. They had recently realized that having only their voices in their heads made it easier to communicate telepathically. _'I thought you said it didn't crash.'_

 _'They don't know that.'_

The Doctor chuckled at the same time that Jackie walked back into the room carrying a couple of tea mugs, which she gave to the Guardian and her friend, completely ignoring the Doctor. The Guardian smiled a little when she noticed that her request for hot water and lemon had been fulfilled. She sipped the steaming liquid, letting her mind drift to Gwyneth for a moment. This future existed because of her.

"Oi! I'm trying to listen." The Doctor said to the two women, who were talking very loudly to Rose.

"They've found a body." The TV reporter said. The Guardian stiffened.

"It's unconfirmed." He continued. "But I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore."

The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged a concerned look. This could change the fate of the human race.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor and the Guardian walked hand-in-hand through the halls of Albion Hospital, the Doctor respecting the Guardian's need for silence as she shifted through all of the information that she had heard at the Tyler flat. During her hundreds of years of training, the Time Lords had taught her how to "delete" information. With sixteen hundred years of memories, it was now the only way that she remained sane.

She deleted nearly every word that had been spoken, except for one comment that Jackie had made, about her friend Ellie's daughter. For some reason, the Guardian felt the need to remember the girl who had lost her mother a year ago. She had been just a child when her mother died also.

The Doctor sonicked a door and opened it to reveal a room filled with soldiers. While the Doctor and the soldiers stared at each other in silent surprise, the Guardian pulled two of her guns out of the black leather jacket she had added to her wardrobe the month before. The Doctor had made the pockets bigger on the inside, so she could carry all of her guns at once.

When the soldiers saw her guns, they scrambled for their own guns and pointed them at the intruders. Lights flashed in the Doctor and the Guardian's eyes, giving the Guardian a slight headache.

The Doctor smiled and nodded once at the soldiers, a motion similar to if he had just said "ah."

They heard a scream.

"Defense plan delta!" The Doctor grabbed the Guardian's wrist and pulled her through the room, towards the screams.

"Come on." The Guardian added, pulling her wrist free. "Move! Move!" She shouted at the soldiers. The group ran down the corridor to the mortuary, the Guardian now leading them. She heard a small noise and turned into a room to see a young Asian woman cowering against the wall.

"It's alive!" She cried.

The Doctor moved over to the woman, while the Guardian turned back to the soldiers. "Spread out. Put the perimeter on lockdown. Now."

When the soldiers didn't move, the Guardian forced herself to use a voice that she hadn't used since she was the Weapon. "Do it!"

The men ran away to do as she ordered, clearly frightened by the darkness in her voice.

She took a deep breath, fighting to rein in everything—the hatred and bitterness—that came with using that tone of voice. Once she felt normal again, she joined the Doctor at the woman's side.

"I swear it was dead," she breathed. Her eyes were wide with panic and shock.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything." The Doctor replied. "What does it look like?"

They heard a clatter behind them and the two Gallifreyans spun around.

"It's still here." The Doctor said.

They both stood and the Guardian gestured to the one soldier who had remained outside the door. He took the Guardian's place at the woman's side.

 _'Stay there_ ,' she ordered the Doctor.

 _'_ _But,_ _Amadahy, it could be a brand new life!'_

 _'I won't kill it unless I have to in order to protect you. But I'm far better at this than you are.'_

The Doctor frowned, then nodded. The Guardian slipped over to the cabinet, putting one of her guns back in her jacket. There was another clatter, and she bent down so whatever it was couldn't see her over the table. Slowly and without her gun before her as the Doctor would have wanted, she peered around the cabinet.

A moment later, the creature peered around its side of the cabinet.

It was a pig.

 _What in the name of_ _Rassilon_ _?_

The pig screamed and ran for the door on its hind legs, wearing a spacesuit.

"Don't shoot!" The Doctor shouted at the soldier, who had raised his gun.

"It's harmless!" The Guardian added, putting her gun in her jacket and running after it. The creature ran through the corridor, screaming. The Guardian had nearly caught it when another soldier fired.

The pig fell to the ground. She knelt beside it.

"What did you do that for?" The Doctor shouted at the soldier, who had the decency to look a little ashamed. "It was scared!" He joined the Guardian beside the pig. "It was scared." He murmured, stroking the animal's cheek as it cried in pain before dying.

' _This wasn't your fault,'_ she told the Doctor. _'I could have yelled ahead. Or run a bit faster.'_

The Doctor smiled weakly, recognizing what she was doing. She didn't feel guilty for the death of the pig. Death was a part of war, a side effect of invasion.

But that didn't mean that she was going to let him feel guilty.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They had the soldiers move the pig back to the mortuary, now that it truly was dead. The young woman, Toshiko Sato, as they discovered her name was, explained everything that she had discovered during her examination.

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?" She asked the Guardian, who had been the one to make the observation.

"More like a mermaid," the Doctor responded. At the Guardian and Toshiko's blank looks, he continued. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid."

"That certainly sounds like Victorian values to me," the Guardian muttered.

The Doctor smiled faintly, before his expression hardened. "Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke," he finished bitterly.

Toshiko moved closer to the table, glancing at her clipboard. "So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain—it's like nothing on Earth."

The Guardian glanced at the Doctor. That's exactly what they need to know to confirm her suspicions. Time to go save the Earth.

They left Toshiko while she was still speaking and ran to the TARDIS. When she saw the destination that the Doctor had set, she sighed. _"Do we have to pick up the pink and yellow human?"_

 _"Why not?"_ The Doctor asked.

 _"The TARDIS hates her."_

 _"It's her planet that we're going to save."_

 _"So? We've saved the planet lots of times without any representatives of the species in question present."_

 _"Are you jealous?"_ The Doctor asked suddenly.

The Guardian snorted. _"Jealous? Of a human?"_ She moved over to the Doctor and pulled him closer by the lapels of his jacket. She kissed him once, then pulled away. _"You've been mine for over a thousand years. I'm not concerned about a human coming between us."_

 _"Then why don't you like her?"_

 _"She's repetitive, states the obvious, and seems to hate me."_

He sighed. _"Please, Amadahy. I see potential in her. Just give her a chance."_

The Guardian searched his expression for a moment, then nodded. _"Fine. If anything, she could work as a distraction."_

The Doctor frowned a bit, but pulled the lever to materialize outside of Rose Tyler's flat. A minute later, Rose burst in. She hurried over to the console where the Doctor was standing. She tried touching the unit, but the time machine shocked her.

"All right, so I lied." The Doctor said to her. "We went and had a look. But the Guardian was right. The crash landing was a fake."

"My mum's here." Rose said as the other two humans walked in.

The Doctor gave a frustrated sigh. _'Okay, I get why you didn't like the idea,_ " he said to the Guardian.

"You ruined my life, Doctor!" Rose's boyfriend shouted from Jackie Tyler's side.

The Doctor spun around, his aggravation clear on his face.

The young man continued. "We were doing great. We were happy. And then you came along, and suddenly, she was obsessed with you. I rarely saw her anymore, except when I went to her flat. And even then, she spent the whole time on the internet, searching for you!"

"Seriously? You're blaming me?" The Doctor turned back to the screen.

"I bet you don't even remember my name." The boy accused, moving towards the Doctor.

"Ricky." The Doctor turned to him again.

"It's Mickey." The boy and the Guardian spoke at the same time. Everyone turned to look at her in shock, even the Doctor.

The Guardian pretended to ignore their questioning looks. She had no idea of why she would remember the boy's name, when she hadn't bothered to remember anyone else on their travels. Something about him touched the edges of her mind, now far too quiet without the trillions of her people all chattering away in it. The boy was important, probably like Gwyneth had been.

Rose suddenly ran out after her mother, then reappeared a moment later. She resumed her place by the Doctor's side, much to the Guardian's displeasure. She may not be jealous, but that wouldn't stop her from disliking the girl's attempts to insert herself at the Doctor's side. She moved over to the Doctor's other side, resting one hand on his back. He grinned at her.

"That was a real spaceship." Rose said to the Doctor.

"Yep," the Doctor and the Guardian replied at the same time.

She looked taken aback for a moment. "So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

Mickey looked over their shoulders at the monitor. "Funny way to invade—putting the world on red alert."

The Doctor looked back at Mickey in surprise, while the Guardian smiled at him.

"Good point!" The Doctor said, shaking himself out of his surprise and turning back to the monitor, where a picture of the crash sight. "So, what're they up to?"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Several minutes later, the Doctor and the Guardian were under the console, working to rewire the radar. Well, the Guardian was. The Doctor was just fiddling with wires and hoping it worked.

"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey stood over them.

"Rickey," the Doctor began.

"Mickey," the Guardian corrected at the same time as the young man.

The Doctor started slightly beside her, then continued. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even being to understand?"

"I suppose not," Mickey conceded.

"Well, shut it, then," the Doctor snapped with a fake smile.

Mickey sent him a hateful look, then moved over to where Rose was standing away from the console. The time machine had begun to spark whenever she got within two feet of the console unit, so she was trying to stay away.

 _'Are you jealous, Eltanin?'_ The Guardian asked in his mind. She held out her hand and he passed her the sonic screwdriver.

 _'Me?_ _'_ He snorted. _'_ _Of course not. The boy's just an idiot, and_ _I don't really care to explain this all right now.'_

The Guardian rolled her eyes, but smiled, her smile growing when a wire sparked and they heard something start up. The Doctor crawled out from the hole in the grating and helped her out.

"Got it!" He laughed and they moved over to the monitor. Rose joined them at the monitor, once again on the Doctor's other side. The TARDIS sparked unhappily, forcing Rose to take a step back.

"Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship." The Guardian typed something in and the monitor pulled up an advance radar image of Earth. It further confirmed her suspicions.

The Doctor explained it to Rose. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See?" He gesture to the monitor as the image revealed the full path of the ship. "The spaceship did a sling-shot 'round the Earth before it landed."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

The Guardian glanced at Mickey to see that his eyes were wide. He understood. She smirked a little. The human that the Doctor saw potential in couldn't understand, but the one he deemed an idiot got it on the first try.

"Whoever those aliens are," the Guardian said when the Doctor had explained it to Rose. "they have been here for a while. So what are they doing?" She pushed the Doctor aside and began scanning the channels for anything that could tell them what was going on.

Behind her, Mickey asked the Doctor about what type of channels they got.

"Hold on," he said suddenly, putting his arm around the Guardian's waist. "I know that lot."

The screen showed a group of uniformed men and women walking through a corridor. The female reporter explained. "It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists—those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

"UNIT," the Doctor confirmed. "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people. I used to work for them." He glanced down at the Guardian.

She nodded. "I remember you mentioning them. Wasn't there a general or something among them that was a friend of yours?"

"Brigadier Lethridge-Stewart. A good man. We should drop in on him when this is all over."

"Why don't you just go and help now?" Rose asked.

"They wouldn't recognize me." The Doctor moved to the other side of the console, his arm still around the Guardian's waist so she moved with him. They flipped the switches needed to shield the TARDIS, make it undetectable with nearly every kind of technology.

The Doctor continued, "I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there, and fake aliens. We want to keep these aliens out of the mix."

He rang the completely useless bell that he only kept there as a sound effect, and the Guardian pushed the last lever to make the TARDIS shift down to low power, making it easier to shield.

"We're going undercover," the Doctor pulled her towards the doors, his arm still around her waist. "And, er, we'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight."

"Mickey, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey and Rose hurried after them.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

The Doctor opened the door, and the Guardian stiffened as she heard the sound of a heavy helicopter. They had encountered a few since she began traveling with the Doctor, and they always brought trouble.

They walked out of the TARDIS and directly into a helicopter spotlight.

"Do not move!" Someone shouted down at them, their voice amplified to be heard over the approaching sirens and rapid thumping of the blades. "Step away from the box and raise you hands above your heads."

Police cars and armored vehicles surrounded them. Soldiers ran towards them. Mickey made a run for it, several soldiers chasing him. Jackie ran out of her building, shouting for her daughter, but was grabbed by a couple of soldiers while Rose looked in the opposite direction.

The screams. The lights.

The Guardian grabbed her head and fell to her knees. She could see it all over again.

 _The_ _naturally orange_ _sky blood-red from dust, to match the ground painted red from Gallifreyan blood. The screams. The fire. Cried of "exterminate" on all sides. She could stop it. She could save the survivors._

Strong hands grabbed her wrists before she could pull out her guns, and a gentle voice spoke quietly in Gallifreyan. _"Amadahy, no. This is not the_ _W_ _ar. We're safe."_

The Guardian looked up into the Doctor's blue-gray eyes. Focusing on them, she was able to pull herself back to the present. She stood up and held her hands above her head, ignoring Rose's questioning looks.

The Doctor followed her example. "Take me to your leader." He said with a grin.

The Guardian rolled her eyes. He had _almost_ followed her example.

They were rather shortly escorted to a police car. The Guardian found herself being pulled onto the Doctor's lap so that there would be enough room for Rose in the back of the car. The Doctor was still grinning like an idiot.

"This is a bit posh." Rose said as she sat down and the door was slammed shut behind her. "If I knew it was going to be like this—being arrested—I would have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Guardian corrected.

"Where to?"

"Where'd you think? Downing Street." The Doctor laughed with glee, Rose joining in.

The Guardian frowned a little, confused. A moment of sifting through her memory later and she recalled the location being mentioned on the television.

"Ten Downing Street?" Rose confirmed, her eyes widening as the information registered.

"That's the one."

Rose laughed again. "I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come?"

"Over the years, I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been—er—noticed."

"Now they need you?"

"You heard the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge." The Guardian responded.

The Doctor jumped in. "And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?" Rose guessed with complete seriousness.

The Guardian didn't have to see the Doctor's face to imagine his offense. "Apart from him."

Rose figured it out. "Oh, don't you just love it." She laughed as the Doctor began reminiscing.

"I'm telling you! Lloyd George—he used to drink me under the table."

The Guardian shook her head. "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

Rose shrugged. "I haven't really paid attention to those things."

They arrived at Number 10 much quicker than the Guardian expected. Reporters were held back by the police line, but cameras flashed everywhere.

The door on the Doctor and the Guardian's side was opened, and the Guardian stepped out first, followed by the Doctor. He wrapped an arm around her waist and smiled and waved at the cameras. A few reporters waved back hesitantly before he pulled the Guardian towards the door, his arm at her waist the whole time.

The Guardian forced a smile, but she knew exactly what the Doctor was doing. By pinning her jacket between them, he made it harder for her to pull out one of her guns. She could still get free easily, in case there was a threat, but he seemed determined to make sure that she didn't point her gun at any innocent bystanders.

Once inside the door, they were taken to a waiting room, filled with military men and the other experts. The Guardian noticed an older woman walk in, her face tense and fearful as she looked around the room.

A young Indian man walked into the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" He moved through the room. "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you: ID cards are to be worn at all times."

He moved over to the Doctor and the Guardian, handing the ID card in his hand to the Doctor. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, but neither of your companions have clearance."

The Doctor smiled tensely and his hold on the Guardian's waist tightened. "I don't go anywhere without her."

The Guardian noticed Rose frown at being left out, but then her glance was drawn over to the older woman again.

"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor—it is the Doctor, isn't it? They will both have to stay outside.

"She's staying with me." The Doctor's voice was darkening.

"Look—"

"It's all right, Doctor." The Guardian interrupted. "Rose and I will remain out here." She gave the young man the same smile she had given to thousands of dignitaries that she had disliked, but couldn't show it to.

 _'I think that the brown haired woman might know something.'_ She told him.

He glanced at the woman in question, who had joined them. _'Rose can handle it.'_

She gave him a doubtful look.

 _'I need you with me,'_ he insisted. _'You know weapons tech far better than I do. And, if anyone can keep everyone in that room alive, it's you.'_

The Guardian smiled slightly, then nodded.

The Doctor turned back to the young man, who looked at them with confusion. "She stays with me."

"I can't!" The man insisted.

"Look," the Doctor leaned down to speak quietly in his ear. "You have the foremost alien experts in the world all in one room. Now, if someone was trying to attack the Earth, this is where and when they would strike first."

The man's eyes widened in shock and horror.

The Doctor pulled back, grinning. "Now, you want me because I'm an expert on aliens. But if you want to keep everyone in that room alive, then you want her. She's kept me out of trouble for years, and she's better trained than all your armies combined."

The man glanced at the Guardian once more, then nodded. "Let her through. She's an official bodyguard of this man."

The soldiers at the door hesitated, then moved back.

"Rose," the Guardian said. "How about you go with Miss Jones?"

"And don't get into any trouble." The Doctor called over his shoulder as they moved into the briefing room.

The Doctor, being the last one, shut the door behind them and he led the Guardian over to the last available seat, in the back beside another man. He sat down and pulled the Guardian onto his lap, handing her the information pamphlet that had been on the chair.

She flipped through it, reading rapidly, then handed it back to him. He also read it.

 _'Did you memorize it?'_ He asked her.

 _'Of course.'_ She raised one eyebrow. _'Eidetic memory, remember?'_

 _'I forget.'_ The Doctor winked at her. _'I may need you to recite it for me.'_

The general, a man named Asquith according to the briefing pamphlet, took the front and spoke. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant."

The Guardian felt the Doctor stiffen at the mention of the pig. So he still blamed himself for the animal's death. She stood.

"Actually, that's not even the most interesting part. That is found on the last page, in the small print under "Any Other Business". It's the sort of thing that they only planned to talk about if they ran out of any other things to natter on about."

She didn't miss how nervous Asquith and the acting Prime Minister suddenly looked. "Turn to it, ladies and gentlemen. See for yourselves." A rustle of pages filled the room.

The Doctor stood and slowly moved up the short aisle. "Three days ago. The North Sea. A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at one hundred fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens. Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what? If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get?" He looked around the room, waiting for someone to speak.

"You. They get you." The Guardian's eyes widened as she realized what Asquith and Green's nervousness meant. "Doctor, it's not a prime chance for targeting. It's a _trap_."

The Doctor stopped when he realized what she meant. "This is all about is. Alien experts."

Everyone began looking around, realizing their situation.

The Guardian kept her eyes on Asquith and Green. "The only people on Earth with the knowledge needed to fight them. Gathered together in one room."

Green farted. The Guardian winced when she noticed a smell like bad breath.

The Doctor turned to Green, his offense clear. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while my fiancee and I are saving the world?"

"Would you rather silent but deadly?" Green leaned forward on a chair slightly, smirking. He and Asquith exchanged a look, then Asquith removed his cap.

A bright blue light filled the room as Asquith began unzipping his forehead while Green chuckled darkly. When the zipper was completely undone, he began pulling the skin suit off, revealing a green creature with huge black eyes set in a baby-like face.

Everyone in the room watched in shock as the creature pulled the rest of the suit off, revealing itself to be more than eight feet tall with claws what were a foot long. The light died away as the alien stepped free of its suit.

"We are the Slitheen." It said.

The Guardian blinked, immediately recognizing the name.

Green pulled a small remote out of his jacket pocket. "Thank you for wearing your ID cards." He smirked. "They'll help to identify the bodies."

He pressed the switch, and suddenly everyone in the room except the Slitheen and the Guardian were covered by a blue light, including the Doctor.

The Slitheen were going to electrocute them.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **So, did everyone like the Guardian's alias? There's a meaning to it. Points to anyone who can figure it out.**

 **Plus, we have now learned where 12 got the term "pudding brain"! And why there is a discrepancy in his age between the old series and the new series.**

 **Did anyone catch the tiny reference to a future companion?**

 **Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! It is so amazing to have people that I don't even know (as opposed to family and friends) reviewing my writing!**

 **And now for my first review note! Poisoned Ivy Adler, thank you SO MUCH! You have no idea (or maybe you do) how awesome it was to read your reviews. I was a bit hesitant with the Guardian's lack of guilt (because, well, most people WOULD feel guilty if they had literally destroyed multiple planets and races), but I honestly couldn't imagine her any other away. Granted, that makes her a good balance for the Doctor—he regrets EVERYTHING.**

 **To clarify (unless I missed what you meant), Eltanin and Amadahy are their real names. I imagine 'Theta Sigma' was sort of a precursor to being called the Doctor, since calling someone by their real name is considered extremely intimate in my version of Gallifrey, and only done by your family or your lover. The Guardian never went to the Academy, so she doesn't have an Academy name.**

 **Next time: How will the Guardian's presence change things when the Slitheen are trying to destroy the planet? Why is the name familiar to the Guardian? And what sort of mark have the Doctor and the Guardian left on ancient mythology?**


	5. Chapter 5: World War Three

**I don't own Doctor Who (*sigh..*). But I do own my OC, the Guardian, so that's pretty cool.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian reached into her jacket to grab one of her guns, but instead found… the Doctor's sonic screwdriver?

Her eyes widened as an insane idea hit her. It was just the sort of thing the Doctor would do, if he hadn't been being electrocuted behind her. She pointed the screwdriver at the remote in Green's hand and thought about what she wanted it to do.

The device sparked and back-fired all the electricity into Green. Strangely, it spread to Asquith, seeming to come from the compression collar around his neck.

She turned around to see the Doctor was free and conscious, unlike all the other experts in the room. He grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the room and down the corridor. They found the soldiers in the entrance hall.

"Oi!" He shouted. "If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street." With a couple of claps and a tiny hop, he headed back towards the briefing room. "Come on!" The soldiers followed.

Inside the briefing room, Green and Asquith had gotten free of the electricity and put Asquith's disguise back on. The Guardian's hearts sank when she realized that the humans would never believe them now.

 _'One of us should have stayed, Eltanin.'_

From the grim look on his face, he agreed.

"Where have you been?" Green snapped at the police.

The sergeant looked at the Doctor, confused, as his men moved to check the unconscious experts.

"I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this… lightening. This kind of...electricity. Then they all collapsed!"

The Doctor's hand still in hers, the Guardian began edging towards the door. She could see where this was going.

The Sergeant looked up from the body that he was checking. "They're unconscious."

With that much electricity, they were lucky to be alive. They'd be unconscious for several hours. Too long to be able to reveal the truth in time. The Guardian swore in her mind, making the Doctor frown a little at her.

Green pointed at the Guardian. "That woman there! She did it! She's not authorized! What idiot let her in here?"

The Doctor pushed the Guardian behind him. "I think you will find that the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." Everyone in the room gave him an unimpressed look. He turned to one of the soldiers. "That's never going to work, is it?"

 _'Whatever gave you that idea?'_ The Guardian muttered into his mind.

The policeman shook his head. "No."

"Fair enough."

The Guardian dragged him out of the room, soldiers chasing them. They made it was far as the corridor before another lot of armed police cornered them. One glance at the Doctor confirmed that he was grinning like an idiot.

 _'Danger magnet.'_

He just grinned wider.

Asquith fought his way to the front of the first lot. "Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorize you to execute them!"

The Guardian started to point out their mistake when the Doctor spoke instead.

"Well, now, yes. You see—er—the thing is—if I was you—if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you and me, little word of advice..."

 _Ding!_

"Don't stand them against the lift." The Guardian dragged the Doctor in and sonicked the controls. The doors closed and the lift went up, stopping at the next floor.

Just outside the door was another of the Slitheen. It roared.

"Hello!" The Doctor grinned and nodded at Rose and the woman, Harriet Jones, who were frantically trying to unlock a door when there was an open one near the Slitheen. The woman saw the Doctor and got Rose's attention on the door.

The Guardian sonicked the control panel again, since the lift was technically on lock-down. The doors closed just as Rose and the woman hurried through the door. The lift went up again.

There was no one on the second floor, so they exited and ran through the halls to the stairs. They heard the soldiers shouting on the ground floor as they made their way to the first floor.

 _Ding!_

They hid on either side of a doorway as two Slitheen, free of their disguises, walked out of the lift.

"It does us good to hunt." This one sounded like Green. So he was one of them, and not just a human accomplice. Not that the latter was very likely, but it had still happened a time or two in their travels so far.

They walked right past their hiding places as Asquith spoke. "We'll keep this floor quarantined as our last hunting ground before the final phase."

As soon as they were far enough away, the Guardian followed them. The Doctor caught up with her and took her hand.

 _'What have I told you about this?'_ She asked him.

 _'You can shoot just as well with either hand.'_

 _'There are three of them.'_

He grinned. _'They have claws. You have a gun.'_

The Guardian frowned slightly, not wanting to concede his point. She pulled her hand free and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall.

"No! Take me first!" They heard a woman shout from the room that the Slitheen had disappeared into. "Take me!"

The Doctor took the fire extinguisher from her and burst into the room. The Guardian rolled her eyes and pulled out two of her guns, following him. He sprayed the two male Slitheen with the CO2. "Out," he shouted to Rose and the woman. "With me!" He continued using short bursts of the CO2 to keep the Slitheen disoriented.

Rose pulled a curtain down onto the female Slitheen before running to the Doctor's side. The Guardian put one of her guns back as Harriet Jones joined Rose slightly behind them.

"Who the hell are you?" The Doctor asked the woman.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Yes, I know who you are," the Guardian responded shortly. She had heard the woman introduce herself earlier.

The Doctor was far nicer. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

The Doctor used up the CO2 in one long burst and they fled the room.

"We need to get to the Cabinet Room." The Guardian shouted to the Doctor.

Harriet Jones chimed in, "The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens."

"Finally, a useful human!" The Guardian glanced back as the Slitheen broke out of the room.

"Oi!" Rose protested. The Guardian just ignored her, as she usually did with offended humans.

The Doctor led the way to the cabinet room. The Guardian put away her gun as they ran, and pulled out the sonic screwdriver just as they reached the door. She unlocked it and they all hurried inside.

Just inside the door, she saw a side table with decanters of wine. She grabbed one and stood in the doorway just as the Slitheen arrived.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Now, I'd rather not do that, because you're one of the few species I've encountered since I began traveling with the Doctor that I haven't personally wronged in any way, but I also happen to be very fond of this man here." She jerked her head in the Doctor's direction. "With his dumb luck, he'd survive the explosion, and that's good enough for me."

The Slitheen took a step back, and the Doctor joined her in the doorway.

"Right then." He grinned. "Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet responded, clutching the red briefcase containing the Emergency Protocols.

"I didn't figure that out," the Guardian responded sarcastically. "I thought green skin and claws were normal for humans."

"Who are you two, if not human?" Green asked them.

Harriet and Rose started nattering behind them, leading the Doctor hush them. "So, what's the plan?" He turned back to the Slitheen.

"But he's got a Northern accent," Harriet said to Rose.

"Lots of planets have a north." Rose responded.

"He said hush." The Guardian snapped. "So, spaceship hidden in the North Sea, transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. Sounds like an invasion, but your technology is advanced enough that there is nothing on Earth that is worth you invading. Not to mention I've heard about you. So, what is so valuable that it brought your family to Earth?"

"Family?" The Doctor asked.

"Slitheen isn't their species." The Guardian informed him.

Green responded. "Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"Ah." The Doctor nodded. "So, what is the profit that you found here?"

Green started to speak, but then Asquith did. "Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

Caught. The Guardian shrugged. "Nice try. It was a stupid bluff anyway. I've been spending too much time around him. Idiotic bravery tends to rub off eventually."

"Oi!" The Doctor protested. "You were the one who agreed to marry me. Twice."

The Guardian just rolled her eyes and held out the decanter to Harriet. "Have a drink. You're probably going to need it."

"Pass it to the left first."

The Guardian just passed it to Rose without a word.

Asquith spoke again. "Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked.

 _'I take it you have a brilliant plan?'_

The Doctor gave a tiny nod and the Guardian stepped back, to stand beside Harriet.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. I promised to take the Guardian to see him. In 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. Now if the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." He lifted a small panel beside the door and pressed a button. Metal shutters closed off all the windows and doors, trapping them in the room.

He turned back to the three women. "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"Then how do we get out?" Rose asked.

"We don't." The Guardian replied.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian helped the Doctor move the body of the young Indian man who had let her into the briefing room. They laid him beside the late Prime Minister in a small closet.

"What was his name?" The Doctor asked.

"Who?" Harriet was paging through the Emergency Protocols.

The Guardian walked out of the closet. "The secretary."

Harriet joined her in the doorway. "I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name." She walked back over to the table, the Guardian with her. The Doctor would need a moment. Two more people were dead, and that didn't even include the ones that the Slitheen had murdered for their disguises.

The Doctor emerged from the closet and held out his hand for the sonic screwdriver. "Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?" She gave it back to him and he began scanning the walls.

Rose straightened by the wall. "No. This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too small." The Guardian joined Harriet in reading through the Emergency Protocols.

"They're big old beasts." The Doctor agreed. "They need to fit inside big humans."

"But the Slitheen are about… eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

"That's the device around their necks. Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"I wish I had a compression field." Rose muttered. "I could fit a size smaller."

Harriet looked up, her eyes wide with horror. "Excuse me, people are dead. This is not the time for making jokes."

Rose looked down. "Sorry."

"Harriet Jones." The Doctor stopped and frowned. "I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

Harriet laughed. "Hardly."

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Unconscious," the Guardian corrected. "And probably on their way to a hospital right now."

"Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?"

"And kill millions of innocent people, Rose?" The Guardian snapped. Goodness, and people considered _her_ violent.

"And besides," Harriet jumped in, noting the tension between the two women. "There's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

The Doctor joined them at the table, a strange look on his face. "Say that again."

"What? About the codes?"

"Yes." The Guardian picked up on where the Doctor was getting.

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

Rose chuckled weakly. "Like that's ever stopped them."

"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." The Doctor murmured.

"Rose, I need your cell phone." The Guardian took the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor, then the phone that Rose had reluctantly handed over. She sonicked the phone, giving it universal signal, while the Doctor and Harriet discussed what the Slitheen might want.

The phone beeped. Mickey had sent a picture, and it made the Guardian smile a little.

"But we're sealed off!" Harriet exclaimed. "How did you get a signal?"

"A little mix of alien and human tech." The Doctor answered.

"Then we can phone for help! You must have contacts."

"Unconscious in a hospital, yeah."

"Not all of them," the Guardian moved over. "Mickey sent us a picture."

The Doctor shook his head in disgust. "Rose, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

The Guardian smirked and handed him the phone. "Perhaps he's not so stupid after all."

He stilled at the picture of a Slitheen being electrocuted, just like Green and Asquith had been earlier.

Rose immediately grabbed the phone and called Mickey. Apparently something had happened to her mother, because Rose asked how she was several times before the Doctor took the phone from her.

"Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

The Guardian could just hear Mickey's voice over the phone. ~ _"It's Mickey, and why should I?"~_

The Doctor winced. "Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but—er—I need you."

Those words seemed to do the trick, because two minutes later Mickey was asking for a password for the UNIT website. The Doctor plugged the mobile phone in a conference speaker so they could all hear.

"Say it again," the Guardian told him.

~ _"It's asking for the password."~_

"Buffalo," the Doctor supplied. "Two Fs, one L."

They could just hear Jackie ask what the website was, and then Mickey responded. _~"All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."~_

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Mickey, you were born in the dark."

"Oh, leave him alone." Rose sighed.

"Thank you," Mickey said sarcastically. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time." The Doctor stood and began pacing. "Big Ben—why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"They wanted the world's attention." The Guardian responded.

"You said to gather the experts to kill them." Harriet handed out glasses of port.

"That lot would gather for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red Alert. What would they do that for?" Rose wondered.

 _~"Oh, listen to her."~_ Jackie said snidely.

"At least I'm trying!" Rose protested.

 _~"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind."~_

Rose rolled her eyes, but said nothing as her mother continued.

 _~"Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets, I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter_ _practically disappear off the face of the Earth._ _I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me: Is my daughter safe with you?"~_

One moment, the Doctor was clearly annoyed by Jackie's questions. The next, he froze.

"I'm fine," Rose answered, not noticing the change in the Doctor.

 _~"Is she safe, Doctor? Can you promise me that you will keep her safe? Well?"~_

The Doctor didn't answer, even though everyone waited for him. The Guardian moved over to him, taking his hands in hers. _'You do your best to keep everyone safe. That's all you can do.'_

He rested his forehead on hers. _'That's not it, Amadahy._ '

Mickey's voice came from behind them. _~"We're in."~_

The Doctor came back. The Guardian stepped back, and he moved over to the table, his arm finding its way around her waist. "Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab—an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

A warbling sound filled the room.

 _~"What is it?"~_

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush and let us work out what it's saying."

The Guardian closed her eyes and listened carefully. "It's a message."

"It's on a loop, keeps repeating." The Doctor added.

They heard a doorbell ring over the phone.

"Hush!" The Doctor and the Guardian snapped at the same time.

 _~"That's not me. Go and see who that is."~_

"It's beaming out into space," the Doctor mused. "Who's it for?"

Suddenly, they heard Jackie scream. _~"They found us."~_

"Mickey, I need that signal."

Rose ignored the Doctor. "Get out, Mum! Just get out! Get out!"

The Guardian slammed her hands on the table. "No! Mickey, get to the kitchen!"

"The kitchen?" Rose snapped.

 _~"It's unmasking. It's going to kill us."~_

"Michael Smith. Kitchen. Now." The Guardian ordered.

 _~"Why?"~_ Mickey snapped.

Everyone else in the room looked like she was insane. "Mickey, listen to me, and I promise you two will survive. The Slitheen are known all over the Universe, if you know where to look. There are from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Yes!" The Doctor exclaimed, his eyes lighting up in realization. "Living calcium! Mickey, the Guardian is right. Go to the kitchen."

They heard the Slitheen growling and slamming against a closed door.

"Give the phone to Jackie!" The Guardian ordered.

 _~"It's going to rip us apart!"~_ Jackie's voice became clearer.

"Jackie, find anything with vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal?" Harriet asked, her eyes widening as she understood.

"Just like Hannibal!" The Doctor responded.

Jackie began naming off the various items that she found in the cupboards, including pickled onions and pickled eggs.

"And you kiss this man?" The Doctor asked Rose, amused.

"I kiss you, and your tastes aren't much better." The Guardian responded just as they heard the Slitheen break through the door. There was silence, then a fart, then an explosion.

Everyone in the Cabinet Room relaxed and breath sighs of relief.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked.

Harriet answered. "Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar."

"Oh. Well, there you go then."

The group toasted the moment with the port that Harriet had poured. The Doctor choked on his, nearly spitting it out.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Jackie and Rose were talking when Mickey suddenly took the phone. _~"Listen to this."~_

They heard Green's voice. _~"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds."~_

"What?" The Guardian stood from where she and the Doctor had been sitting up against the wall, trying to rest for a few minutes. She joined Rose and Harriet at the table, followed closely by the Doctor.

 _~"Our_ _technicians_ _can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first._ _The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."~_

"He's making it up," the Doctor said. The Guardian moved over to the door.

"There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"They did last time." The Guardian responded, still slightly annoyed that Green had pinned the attack on the experts on her.

The Doctor walked over to the Guardian. "That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking."

"Because when humans get scared, they lash out." The Guardian finished. "The United Nations release the defense codes, and the Slitheen go nuclear."

"But why?" Harriet asked, just as the Doctor pressed to button and opened up the room again.

Three Slitheen in their natural form guarded the door.

The Guardian spoke. "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. Whole planet gets nuked."

One Slitheen still in disguise moved to the front. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place!" Harriet protested. "What for?"

"Profit, Harriet," the Guardian didn't look away from the four Slitheen. She could easily take them out. But then there were more Slitheen just a scream away, and all the soldiers and reporters outside. It wasn't worth trying. "The signal beaming into space is an advertisement."

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives." The Doctor spat.

The Guardian could feel him seething beside her. She took his hand and squeezed it, trying to reassure him like he always did her.

"Such a small amount compared to the Guardian's blood-soaked standards."

They both froze.

The woman smirked. "Oh, you didn't think we knew about her, did you? The Doctor's wife is famous throughout the Universe. The man who heals, married to the woman who destroys. So many ancient myths contain a god of life married to a goddess of death. I wonder where they got the idea?"

At least that meant that they would actually survive to get married.

The Guardian pushed the Doctor back slightly, so that she could stand in front of the Slitheen. "Then this goddess of death gives you a choice—leave this planet, or I will kill every single one of you."

The female Slitheen smirked. "What, you? Trapped in your box?"

The Guardian smiled darkly. "If you're so convinced that I'm powerless, why are you so terrified?" She pressed the button to cut them off from the rest of the world again.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Morning had come before Mickey called them back. The UN was voting.

 _~"All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."~_ Jackie spoke on the phone.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested.

The Guardian shook her head. "Then we'd have to deal with the soldiers downstairs." She looked over at the Doctor. He was leaning against a window, unusually solemn.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked.

 _~"There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."~_

Harriet sighed wearily. "Voicemail dooms us all."

Rose's sigh was more of frustration. "If we could only just get out of here."

"There's a way out." The Doctor said quietly.

Rose spun around. "What?"

"There's always been a way out." The Guardian answered. She watched the Doctor, curious as to why he hadn't mentioned this before. She had known from the beginning what the only way out was that gave them any chance.

"Why don't we use it?" Rose accused.

The Doctor uncrossed his arms and stepped over to the table. "Because I can't guarantee that your daughter will be safe. I can't guarantee that any of us will survive it."

 _~"Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."~_

"Jackie, you want your daughter safe. Well, I understand, because I want the Guardian safe."

The Guardian jerked to look at him. Was he really so determined to protect her that he would let an either planet die? He didn't look at her.

"She's all I have left of my family _and_ my people. There's no one else other than us. I love her, and I _can't_ be the one to make this decision. That's why I didn't say anything before now." He moved over to the Guardian, placing his hands on either side of her face and resting his forehead against hers. _'I could save the world, but it wouldn't be worth it if I lost you, Amadahy._ '

She shook her head a little. _'Eltanin, everyone dies if this doesn't happen.'_

 _'But you live.'_

 _'Trapped in a box. And not even one that's bigger on the inside.'_

"Doctor, Guardian."

They turned to Harriet.

"It's not your decision. It's mine."

 _~"And who the hell are you?"~_ Jackie spat.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you, Guardian. Do it."

The Guardian smiled at the woman, grateful that she had ordered her to do it, not the Doctor. "Mickey, use the buffalo password. It overrides everything." She remembered that from reading the Emergency Protocols earlier.

"So, how do we get out?"

"We don't. We stay here."

 _~"We're in. Here it is. HMS Tarean. Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."~_

"Right," the Doctor said. "We need to select a missile."

 _~"We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defense codes."~_

"We don't need it, Mickey. All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

 _~"Sub-Harpoon, UGM-84A."~_

The Guardian looked to the Doctor for confirmation this time. She knew weapons, but Earth missiles were far less advanced than she was used to.

He nodded.

"That's the one, Mickey. Select." She waited a moment, hearing Mickey say something to Jackie. "You ready for this?"

 _~"Yeah."~_

"Mickey Smith, the world is in your hands. Fire."

After a tense moment, they heard, _~"Launched."~_

Harriet moved over to one of the windows. "How solid are these?"

The Doctor sighed and pulled the Guardian to himself. She could feel him shaking slightly.

"Not solid enough," she said for him. "Built for short-range attacks. Nothing this big."

 _'I wish…'_

 _'Eltanin, this is not the time for wishing.'_

 _'Do you think we would still be here, even if I had married you on Gallifrey when we had the chance?'_

The Guardian stiffened. They had agreed to never speak of what happened the last time they saw each other before the War, when they had found a friend willing to cover for her so that she could run away with him just long enough to get married, even though that would be breaking the law. They had chosen not to.

The next time they saw each other had been on Karn.

"All right, now I'm making the decision." Rose said, drawing their attention away from each other. "I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out." She opened the door to the closet. "It's like what they say about earthquakes. You survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small, so it's strong. Come and help me." She called to Harriet and the Gallifreyans. "Come on!"

Harriet ran over to join her.

"It's a chance." The Guardian pulled out of the Doctor's arms and joined the two humans in emptying the cupboard. She made sure that she was the one to remove the dead bodies before turning to the office supplies. While the women emptied the cupboard, the Doctor coached Mickey in stopping the intercepting missiles.

Once it was clear enough, the Doctor unplugged the phone and joined them in the cupboard. The Guardian shut the door and locked it. Hopefully, that would keep anything dangerous from flying into the tiny room.

They sat under a shelf on an outside wall, the Guardian beside the Doctor. He tugged her closer so that her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you all." Harriet said, taking the Guardian's hand.

"Hannibal!" They all looked up and waited.

At first the cupboard only shook violently, but then it flipped over, sending them flying against the walls. An eternity later, it stilled with a sickening crash.

"Everyone okay?" The Doctor asked.

Stiff yeses came from Harriet and Rose. The Guardian nodded and squeezed his arm.

"Fantastic." He kissed the Guardian, then unlocked the door. Harriet led the way through ruined Cabinet Room, to the door. It fell off with frightening ease.

The four of them gathered in the doorway to look over the smoking remains of 10 Downing Street.

"Made in Britain." Harriet said proudly.

The sergeant from earlier ran up to them. "Are you all right?"

Harriet pulled out her ID with a confidence that she hadn't had later. "Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am." The Sergeant ran off.

Harriet turned back to the Doctor and the Guardian. "Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out." Her eyes widened. "Oh, lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor suggested.

"Me?" Harriet laughed. "I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for ya." Rose added.

Harriet smiled. "Now don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" She walked away over the rubble, calling out that the Earth was safe.

The Gallifreyans and Rose followed her.

"I thought I knew the name." The Doctor said once they were on the street. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britian's Golden Age."

They watched as she reached the reporters, then walked in the other direction.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They took Rose back to her flat, then went back to the TARDIS. The Doctor somehow found the boy who had graffitied "Bad Wolf" on the side of the TARDIS, and he made him wash it off. While the Doctor was more annoyed, the Guardian found herself concerned. She hadn't heard the words in over a thousand years, then suddenly she heard them twice in three months.

It was never good to ignore a coincidence.

She reentered the console room with fresh clothes on. The Doctor was playing around with various switches.

 _"Canceled the Slitheen's advert and sent out a message to go with it. 'The Earth is protected.'"_ He sighed. _"I want to take Rose on a trip."_

The Guardian froze.

 _"Not long-term, mind, but she did save your life today. I want to say thank-you."_

 _"She saved her life today."_ The Guardian corrected. _"The rest of us were just lucky to be there."_

The Doctor hesitated. _"Please, Amadahy?"_

The Guardian sighed. He was determined to thank the girl. And besides, the TARDIS hated her enough that she probably wouldn't stay very long anyway. _"Fine. But only if you let me ask Mickey as well."_

The Doctor winced, but nodded a moment later. The Guardian walked out as he called Rose.

Mickey was sitting on a rubbish bin, reading a newspaper. The Guardian glanced over to see that the young artist had just finished washing away his handiwork. She chose to ignore him and walked over to Mickey.

"I just went down the shop," he said as she approached. "And I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is."

He held up the newspaper, revealing the headline—'Alien Hoax'.

"How could they do that?" He asked, clearly upset. "They saw it."

The Guardian pulled herself on top a rubbish bin to sit next to him. "Planet Earth isn't ready for aliens. Long ago, when aliens came to Earth, they called them gods. Now they just pretend it was all fake."

The female Slitheen had been right. She and the Doctor would leave their mark all over the Universe. The people of the Gamma Forest used 'doctor' to mean 'mighty warrior'. Where else had the names they had chosen been corrupted by their own actions?

"So we're just idiots, then?" Mickey asked, a trace of bitterness in his voice.

"Not all of you." The Guardian gave him a small smile, which he returned. "How about you come with us?" She said.

"What?" He eyed her suspiciously.

"Come with us," she repeated. "You've got potential, Mickey Smith. And, contrary to what the Doctor says, you're not a total pudding brain."

Mickey sighed and looked away for a moment, then shook his head. "No. I've seen that life, and it's too much. But..." He hesitated. "Don't tell them that I said that."

The Guardian hid her disappointment. "Then I'll just tell them that I changed my mind and didn't ask you."

He nodded gratefully. "Thanks, Dee."

"Dee?"

He chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah. Gar-DEE-an. 'Guardian' takes a while to say, so I thought I'd shorten it. If you don't mind."

She shook her head. No one, not even the Doctor, had given her a shortened name before. "I like it." She saw Rose exit her building, Jackie following after. "Here."

He took the CD that she held out to him. "What's this?"

"A virus I created. You put it online and it will destroy every mention of me and the Doctor. Keep people from following us."

He tucked the CD into his pocket and nodded as Rose and Jackie joined them. Jackie was begging her daughter not to leave, making promises. Rose carried a large backpack, like she expected to stay a while.

"I'm not leaving because of you. I'm traveling, that's all. And then I'll come back." Rose turned away from her mother and walked over to Mickey.

"Come with us," she said.

Mickey hesitated, glancing at the Guardian.

"He's not coming. The Doctor doesn't want him." She responded.

"We'd be dead without him," Rose snapped.

"It is not your decision." The Guardian responded coldly, slipping off the dust bin to get in Rose's face. "You are a temporary passenger in the Doctor's and my home—a sentient home that doesn't like you. You would do well to remember that this is a thank-you trip for saving our lives before you invite anyone else on board."

Rose glared at the Guardian before heading into the TARDIS. Mickey slipped off his dust bin and surprised the Guardian by giving her a hug.

"Mickey Smith, Defender of the Earth. Keep out of trouble." She murmured in his ear.

Then she turned to Jackie. "Mrs. Tyler."

"Can you promise me that she will be safe? What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you and the Doctor?"

The Guardian hesitated. "Jackie Tyler, I can promise you: as much as is in my power, I will keep you daughter safe. I can't guarantee her safety, because if she does something dangerous on her own, I might not be able to save her. But I promise to do what I can."

Jackie still didn't look satisfied, so she added, "And don't worry about something happening to the Doctor or me. We're a lot harder to kill than we look."

Jackie's expression softened a little, accepting the Guardian's words. "Thank you."

The Guardian nodded to both the humans before walking into the TARDIS. The Doctor was at the controls, while Rose stood a safe distance away from the console.

"So," the Guardian walked up to the console. "Doctor, what did you say about that plasma storm in the Horsehead Nebula?"

"There are fires burning 10 million miles wide," the Doctor explained to Rose. "We're going to fly the TARDIS right into the heart of it and ride the shockwave all the way out. It'll take both of us, but then we'll hurtle across the sky. All of time and space. We could end up anywhere. Sound good?"

Rose nodded.

"Very well." The Guardian typed in the coordinates. "Next stop: everywhere."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **So, Rose is now travelling with the Doctor and the Guardian. Wonder how that will go over... especially with what's coming next...**

 **Next time: An old enemy is encountered, and we learn more about the Doctor and the Guardian's backgrounds...**


	6. Chapter 6: Dalek

**I don't own Doctor Who, only the Guardian.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The TARDIS landed without either the Doctor or the Guardian touching anything.

"That's not supposed to happen." the Doctor frowned as he looked at the screen. Rose moved over to the monitor, only for the TARDIS to spark yet again, driving the girl back. The Guardian smirked a tiny bit and joined the Doctor. They had landed millions of miles and thousands of years from their destination.

"What happened?" Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned, not seeing any problems. "Don't know."

"Care to investigate?" The Guardian asked him, noting the signal that the TARDIS had locked on to.

"Sure."

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS first, followed closely by the Guardian, then Rose.

"So, what is it? What's wrong?"

The Guardian rolled her eyes at the question. Rose had been with them a week, always managing to convince the Doctor to take her on yet another adventure. She was about ready to abandon the girl on Earth sometime in her relative future, just to get rid of her. The TARDIS would be a more than willing accomplice, as she seemed to be more determined than usual to throw off the Doctor's plans.

"I told you, Rose. I don't know. There's some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course."

Rose looked around. "Where are we?"

The Guardian answered her. "Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground. The year 2012."

The Doctor looked at a glass case, while the Guardian looked at another. It contained a piece of spaceship.

"That's so close. So I should be...26!"

The Guardian found a light switch. Lights turned on one-by-one, revealing a long hallway lined by glass cases.

"Blimey… It's a great big museum." Rose breathed.

The Doctor moved along the row. "An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this."

"Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. I think that's a milometer." The Guardian pointed at one of the cases.

"From the Roswell spaceship." The Doctor agreed.

"That's a bit of Slitheen!" Rose exclaimed, pointing at the next case. "That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed!"

The Doctor caught sight of something. "Oh, look at you!" There was a trace of sadness in his voice.

The Guardian joined him at the display case, which contained the head of a Cyberman.

"What is it?" Rose joined them as well, standing on the Doctor's other side.

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit." He smiled sadly and took the Guardian's hand. "I'm getting old."

"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose asked, completely obvious to the Doctor's distress.

The Doctor squeezed the Guardian's hand once. She responded for him. "No, it's stone dead. Whatever is sending out the signal is alive and calling for help."

The Doctor touched the glass and immediately an alarm went off. Within seconds, an armed guard had cut the trio off from the TARDIS, weapons pointed at them. The Doctor grabbed the Guardian's other hand to keep her from pulling out her gun and starting a fire-fight. She made an annoyed noise, but didn't try to fight him. They were surrounded on all sides anyway.

"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you two Exhibit A and B." Rose commented.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The trio was quickly escorted up quite a few levels by a hard-edged woman called Goddard. They walked into an office to see a young man holding an alien instrument up and a bored-looking man in a chair behind a desk.

"What does it do?" The bored man asked.

The young man, who was English, handed the instrument to him. "Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that," the Doctor said.

"Shut it," Goddard snapped.

"Really, though, that's wrong." The Doctor insisted.

"Is it dangerous?" The English boy asked, slightly offended.

The Guardian stepped between the Doctor and the man in the chair, not like his calculating look. "Only if you ego is big enough that you consider looking like an idiot to be dangerous."

She reached for the object and firing bolts clicked all around her. The man held up one finger and the guards relaxed. He passed the instrument to her.

Feeling the familiar weight of the object, she smiled a little. It was definitely not Gallifreyan in origin, but she had learned how to handle thousands of instruments from different cultures. Music was the only thing that her trainers hadn't corrupted for her until she met the Doctor.

Gently, she stroked the metal and high, sweet notes filled the room. "It requires delicacy."

"It's a musical instrument." The man said, fascinated.

"And it's a long way from home," the Doctor added. "Where would you say its from?"

"Eye of Orion," the Guardian responded without even needing to think.

"Here, let me." The man snatched it out of the Guardian's hands and tried to play it himself. The sounds he produced were lower, more mechanical.

"I said delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision."

The man lightened his touch and the higher notes came back.

"Very good," the Doctor said. "Quite the expert."

"As is your friend." He tossed the instrument onto the floor. The Guardian winced as it hit the wall.

"Who exactly are you?" He demanded.

"I'm the Doctor. And who are you?" The Doctor took the Guardian's arm and pulled her slightly behind him.

The man smirked. "Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

The Doctor chuckled. "Pretty much sums me up, yeah."

"The question is, how did you get in?" He moved around the desk to stand directly in front of the Doctor. The Guardian snorted as his obvious attempt to intimidate.

"Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice and blondie here. You're quiet the collector yourself; they're rather pretty.

Rose huffed. "She's going to smack you if you keep calling her 'blondie'."

The man smiled. "She's English, too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend."

The young man nodded tensely.

 _'Amadahy, no matter what happens, I need you to make sure that this man doesn't discover that you're not human.'_

 _'What about you?'_

The Doctor didn't answer.

 _'Eltanin…'_

He glanced at her, and she could see the genuine fear in his eyes. _'Amadahy, there are methods of torture that the humans have that only a few would try on me, at least in this time. But you…'_ He trailed off and looked away.

The Guardian understood. She knew of many cultures that would have no qualms about raping her or sexually experimenting on her. It seemed she would have to add humans to that list. _'Remind me what you see in these creatures again?'_

Adam spoke. "This is Mister Henry Van Statten."

"And who's he when he's at home?"

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet."

"Don't be stupid." Rose replied. "No one owns the internet."

Van Statten grinned. "And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right, kids?"

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum." The Doctor observed. "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?"

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

"And yet I captured you," Van Statten said. "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

"The Cage contains my one living specimen."

The Guardian barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. For all his supposed genius, Henry Van Statten had walked right into that one.

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone," Rose cut in with a weak laugh.

 _'Eltanin, for once I agree with Rose. This is not the time to appease your ego.'_

The Doctor and Van Statten didn't break their staring contest.

"Goddard! Inform the Cage we're heading down." He looked over at the young man. "You, English, look after Blondie. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet. Bring yours."

The Doctor's jaw tightened. "Good, I never go anywhere without her."

Van Statten frowned, and the Guardian realized what the Doctor was doing.

 _'Don't you dare leave me up here with Rose! Doctor!'_

"On second thought," Van Statten said. "She stays up here. English, now you get two girls." He smirked and then led the way out the door. The Doctor smiled apologetically at the Guardian, then followed him.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor heard the Guardian's voice in his head the entire way down to the Cage. It seemed that she had decided to punish him for abandoning her by subjecting him to an ongoing commentary about every little stupid thing Rose and the English kid were saying.

About midway through, he promised himself that after this adventure, he was going to say goodbye to Rose and take the Guardian someplace nice and quiet and talk her into finally marrying him.

"We've tried everything," Van Stattan explained once they reached to outer room of the Cage. "The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside."

"Inside? Inside what?" The Doctor began working through the list of creatures he knew that could shield themselves inside a small ship or armor. So far, the list wasn't looking good.

Especially not with the Guardian upstairs. Most of the higher species would consider it an honor to kill her.

The door behind Van Statten opened when he punched in the combination. A man in an orange suit moved to stand beside Van Statten.

"Welcome back, sir," he said. "I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?" What sort of a name was that?

"Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it?"

Ah. It was that sort of name.

"Although, I'd much prefer to find out it's real name."

So would the Doctor. Orange Suit held out a pair of gauntlets.

"Here, you'd better put these on. The last guy that touched it… burst into flames."

That narrowed down the list.

"I won't touch it then." He grinned flippantly.

Van Statten was unamused. "Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me."

The Doctor walked through the door, into a dark room. Behind him, he heard Van Statten ordering that the door not be opened until there was a result, then said door shut, locking him in with whatever the creature was.

There was a faint blue light in the middle of the room, and just enough light from a bulb in the ceiling to see all sorts of drills on a table. He winced and turned to the creature.

"Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

White lights blinked as the creature spoke in its rough, mechanical voice. "Doc-tor?"

The Doctor froze. "Impossible." The list had been narrowed down to one species. A species that was supposed to be dead.

" _The_ Doctor?" The creature's voice was stronger now.

Lights turned on to reveal the creature, badly damaged and in chains.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Doctor pounded on the door. "Let me out!" He had to get to the Guardian before the creature did!

"Exterminate! You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!"

The Doctor realized that no one was coming for him. He shrank back against the wall. So this was how he was going to die. In a cage, far away from the Guardian.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _'Amadahy, I love you.'_

The Guardian straightened in her chair. _'Eltanin, what's wrong?'_ There was such finality in his voice.

He didn't respond.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Dalek's laser arm twitch, but nothing happened.

The Doctor smiled, relieved. "It's not working."

He wasn't going to die here today.

He began laughing. A Dalek. A creature born to kill, and now it couldn't even do that.

"Fantastic! Oh, fantastic!" He moved away from the wall, unable to contain his glee. "Powerless. Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?" He ran closer, getting inches away from its eyepiece.

"Keep back!" The Dalek slid back.

"What for? What're you going to do it me?"

The silence stretched. They both knew that the Dalek couldn't do anything.

Finally, after eight hundred years of War, the last Dalek in the Universe was powerless. He had complete control. He could do whatever he wanted to it.

He nearly shuddered as he remembered the sight of his granddaughter Susan's lifeless body. She wasn't even supposed to be on Gallifrey. She had married a human and lived in the 22nd Century. But even she had answered the call of Gallifrey when he hadn't.

His daughter—his only child, his Gaiana, the very image of his first love—had died not long after that. He had actually seen her die, heard her scream when a Dalek shot her. That Dalek hadn't lived longer than it took for her body to hit the ground.

More memories came to the surface, memories that he had buried in order to survive. Everyone that he had ever seen killed by a Dalek. Everyone that he had ever loved. Susan. Gaiana. His brother. His parents. Gaiana's three sons. Their families.

And, long before the Time War, his first wife.

"If you can't kill," he spat at the Dalek. "Then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing! What the hell are you here for?"

Oh, how those words could have been applied to him. He had fought for four hundred years. War was all that regeneration had known. Even as a new man, the bloodlust of the Warrior remained, hidden for the Guardian's sake. Because how could he help her if he couldn't even help himself?

"I am waiting for orders."

The Doctor stopped. "What does that mean?"

"I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders."

His mind went to the Guardian. She had been trained from childhood to receive orders. Ever since the day she stood before the Untempered Schism. Three hundred years later, she was granted her position. Declared "finished". The Ultimate Weapon.

And now she had no one but him. How did she feel, no longer having the High Council standing over, dictating her life? Did she feel free? Or directionless?

"Well, you're never going to get any. Not ever." He replied to the Dalek.

"I demand orders!"

"They're never going to come! Your race is dead! You all burnt—all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second." And the entire Time Lord race. Except him.

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I _made_ it happen!"

"You destroyed us?"

Let the Universe burn or commit genocide against two insane species. He walked away from the Dalek, the shame of that choice returning. The Guardian kept it at bay, reminded him that he had done the best that he could. But without her there…. "I had no choice." He replied, more to convince himself than the Dalek.

"And what of the Time Lords?"

He flinched. "Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the Last Great Time War. Everyone lost." His final words were spoken at a near whisper.

"And the coward survived."

The Dalek calling him a coward reignited his fury. "Oh, and I caught _your_ little signal. 'Help me.' Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left."

"I am alone in the universe." He could almost believe the Dalek was sad about that. If Daleks had the ability to feel sorrow, which they didn't.

"Yep."

"So are you. We are the same."

The Doctor stiffened. "We're not the same! I'm not..." Though technically, he was. The Guardian was Gallifreyan by birth, but she wasn't a Time Lord.

Or even a Time Lady.

He was the last survivor of the Academy. Last of the Prydonian Chapter. Last of the House of Lungbarrow. There were so many aspects of their culture that the Guardian had been cut off from due to her training. He was the last one left to remember them.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _'Eltanin, what's wrong?'_

She was getting sick of this. He wasn't dead; she could still feel his presence in her mind. He just wasn't responding to her.

 _'I'm alright, Amadahy.'_ His response in her mind was weak, but there. She nearly sighed with relief, but that would draw the humans' attention. If they could pull their attention off each other long enough to realize that there was another person with them.

 _'What's going on down there?'_ She asked.

There was no response for a long time, long enough that she grew concerned he wasn't going to answer her. _'I need to protect you, Amadahy.'_

The coldness in his voice… _'Eltanin, what the hell are you going to do? What is down there?'_

He never responded.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor glared at the Dalek. It would kill the Guardian, if given the chance.

"No, wait. Maybe we are." He backed away from the Dalek, towards the control table. "You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you _deserve._ " He spat the last word, and paused dramatically. "Exterminate."

He pulled a lever on the control table. The Dalek screamed as the room lit up with electricity, all focused on it.

"Have pity!" It screamed.

"Why should I? You never did. You never _would_." He needed to kill it now, before it realized that the Guardian was here. He pressed a few buttons and turned a dial to ramp up the voltage. There still wasn't enough to kill it.

"Help me!" The Dalek screamed as guards hurried in.

The Doctor tried to increase the voltage once again, but the guards grabbed him.

Van Statten went immediately to the Dalek. "I saved you life. Now talk to me."

Orange Suit turned off the electricity.

"You've got to destroy it!" The Doctor shouted over the guards dragging him out.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian followed Rose and the young man—Adrian or Andrew or Alan, something with an A—to a room filled with random pieces of alien debris. She had tuned out of their conversation long ago, noting that they were only flirting with each other as Rose pretended to be impressed by the young man's "knowledge" of aliens.

So much for the Doctor's claims at humans were a loyal species. Rose certainly didn't seem loyal to Mickey.

She continued trying to get the Doctor's attention, but he was ignoring her.

Whatever was down there had to be big, if he wasn't even listening to her.

"What is in this Cage?" She turned suddenly to "not-Mickey", as she decided to call him.

He and Rose both looked startled that she had spoken.

"What?" He asked.

"What's in the Cage?" She repeated. She wasn't exactly in the mood to repeat herself—granted, she never was—but the Doctor was probably in danger. She could repeat herself a few times if that meant protecting the only other Gallifreyan in existence.

"Well, I did ask, but Mr. Van Statten keeps it to himself." He glanced at Rose. "Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. system."

"Show me." The Guardian walked over to the computer that Not-Mickey stood beside.

"It doesn't do much, the alien." He began typing. "It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."

The Guardian felt her blood freeze when she saw the screaming Dalek. No… It couldn't be here!

"It's being tortured!" Rose cried. "Where's the Doctor?"

"Take me down there." The Guardian snapped, her shock giving way to fury. "Now." The death of the Daleks was the only thing that had allowed the Doctor to bear the loss of Gallifrey and his family.

Not-Mickey hesitated, then led them to the door at a glare from the Guardian.

As they walked down the hall, the Guardian's mind ran through the possibilities. The most likely? That the Doctor had tried to kill the Dalek, and was even now being interrogated by Van Statten.

It wasn't likely that the Dalek had killed him. If it had firing capability, the man in the orange suit would have been dead the moment he stepped in the room.

Worst-case scenario? Van Statten had discovered that the Doctor was an alien and was even now torturing him.

The Guardian picked up her pace, forcing Not-Mickey and Rose to run to keep up with her.

Van Statten would want to make sure that she and Rose were not aliens, too. And the Doctor would die before he gave her up to be tortured.

She couldn't let him do that.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"The metal's just battle armor. The real Dalek creature's inside." The Doctor spoke as the guards escorted him into a lift, followed by Van Statten and Goddard.

"What does it look like?" Clearly, the man was not pleased that the Doctor had tried to kill his pet.

"A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate."

"Genetically engineered..." Van Statten mused. "By whom?"

The Doctor nearly sighed in frustration. Would this man ever stop thinking about how valuable his pet was and start realizing how much danger he had put the world in? "By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him."

Van Statten ignored the insult when Goddard began speaking. "It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?"

"Because it's greatest enemy is here." Let them think that was him. "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane."

"It must have fallen through time," the Doctor mused. That had been known to cause Daleks to go insane. They weren't meant to time-travel. "The only survivor."

"You talked about a war?" Goddard asked.

They already knew, so why not? "The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived, too."

The Doctor glanced at Van Statten, noting the implications in his voice. "Not by choice."

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

Yep. He kind of figured that was going to happen.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Now, smile!"

The Doctor barely kept himself from screaming as Van Statten's machine scanned him. If there was one thing a Gallifreyan could hear through anything, it was the sound of another Gallifreyan screaming. Especially now that they were the only two left, they had a mental bond stronger than that of most married couples, even though they were still only promised to each other.

If he let out a sound, the Guardian would hear it and come running. Then Van Statten would know about her. About her abilities.

"Two hearts!" Van Statten observed, his excitement clear. "Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret." The Doctor barely kept his disgust hidden. And the Guardian complained about _Victorian_ values. Clearly, this man had none. "You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly." Van Statten was _proud_ of what he had done. He moved closer to the Doctor.

"Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?" He started to walk back to the scanner.

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten?"

He stopped, curious.

"A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I will be true to myself and continue." He walked away.

"Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the Cage," Van Statten replied, in the same tone of voice that the Doctor had heard used in reference to the _Titanic_. He turned to scanner on for a moment.

"But it's woken up! It knows I'm here." But not that _she_ was there. "It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!" And most especially not her.

Van Statten just turned the machine on again.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Not-Mickey got them into the Cage. Fortunately, Van Statten seemed to have the best security money could buy, and also the most scared of disturbing him. They walked right in.

The Guardian had hoped it was all a nightmare.

Well, it was. Just not the sort that she had hoped for.

It was a Dalek.

The door closed behind them. Wonderful. Locked in a dungeon with Not-Mickey, Rose the Flirt, and a Dalek. The Guardian wasn't sure which was the most dangerous. Probably not the Dalek right at this moment, judging by the battered looks of it.

"Don't get too close." Not-Mickey told Rose.

"Don't get anywhere near it at all." The Guardian replied. "That thing was bred to kill, and I doubt it's completely defenseless."

Rose ignored her and stepped closer to the Dalek. "Hello. Are you in pain?"

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "It's been tortured. What do you think?"

Rose glared at her, then stepped closer to the Dalek.

"Yes..." The Dalek spoke weakly. "I am in pain. They torture me, but they still fear me. Do you fear me?"

Rose frowned, tears in her eyes. "My name's Rose Tyler. I've got a friend, he can help." She reached to touch the Dalek.

The Guardian grabbed her arm. "Rose Bloody Tyler, don't be an idiot. Who do you think did this to it?"

Rose pulled her arm free. "They did!"

"Rose, you have no idea of what that thing is!" The Guardian could feel tears threatening to appear. "I watched its race murder _billions_ of my people. The Doctor's entire family. I was at the funeral for his granddaughter."

It had been a small, private funeral, and it only happened because Susan had died saving the life of a member of the High Council. The Doctor had been too grief-stricken to remain longer than it took to see that she really was dead. Her mother had been too devastated to even try to come to the funeral of her only daughter, and her one surviving brother had been in the midst of a battle—the same one that killed him. She had been the closest Susan had to family at her own funeral.

"That doesn't mean it has to die!" Rose nearly screamed in reply. "Just because its people did such horrible things..." She stepped back, closer to the Dalek.

"Yes, it does! If you think I'm cold-hearted, that thing doesn't even have the ability to feel anything other than hate." The Guardian grabbed Rose's arm, intent on shoving the girl behind her whether she liked it or not.

But Rose pulled away at the last moment, too fast. She lost her balance and fell back, catching herself with one hand on the Dalek's head-piece.

"No!" The Guardian and Not-Mickey shouted at same time. The Guardian yanked Rose away, but it was too late. An orange hand-print glowed where Rose had touched it.

She shoved Rose into Not-Mickey. "Get out of here!"

"Genetic material extrapolated." The Dalek's voice was deep again, normal. Just like it was in the Guardian's nightmares. "Initiate cellular reconstruction!"

It broke out of it chains just as the door opened and Orange Suit entered.

"What the hell have you done?" He snapped at Rose and Not-Mickey.

"Stay back!" The Guardian grabbed his arm. "Get out of here! Now!"

Orange Suit snorted. "What's it going to do? Sucker me to death?"

"If it has to, yes!" The Guardian dragged him towards the door. "Lock it down!" She shouted to the guard.

"Condition red! Condition red! This is not a drill!"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Weary from pain, the Doctor looked at Van Statten. "Release me if you want to live." He spoke weakly, wondering if it was even worth the effort.

No matter what, the Guardian would find him.

But by then, he might be the only one who could stop the Guardian from killing everyone on this base for harboring the Dalek and torturing him.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _~"You've got to keep it in that cell."~_

The Guardian stopped arguing with the guard over the security of the vault and turned to the computer monitor. "Finally, someone who is intelligent enough to know what we are dealing with. Where have you been?"

On the screen, the Doctor smiled weakly. _"Ask Van Statten."_

The Guardian stiffened, noticing the Doctor's small flinch as he spoke and stiff posture. He looked like he was in pain.

"Van Statten, if there is any permanent damage to him, you are answering to me."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Van Statten actually backed up a couple of steps at the darkness in her voice. And he hadn't even met the Weapon.

"How did that thing get free?" The Doctor demanded. From the way Rose was almost hiding in a corner…

 _"The human you insisted on bringing with us, that's how."_

 _~"I said that I was sorry!"~_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian rolled her eyes and turned to the blonde human. "Sorry won't cut it when the entire world dies because you _had_ to feel sorry for a creature I told you wasn't worth it."

"I've sealed the compartment." The guard insisted. "It can't get out. That lock's got a billion combinations."

The Guardian sent a frustrated glance at the Doctor on the screen. "Your turn." She'd already tried multiple times.

 _~"The Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."~_

The Guardian turned to the door to see that the Dalek was doing just that.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor watched in horror as the Cage door opened. The guards opened fire on the Dalek, the Guardian joining in a second later. But even her guns had no effect on the Dalek.

"Don't shoot it!" Van Statten shouted, as if his men could hear. "I want it unharmed."

 _'Amadahy, get out of there. I don't care about anyone else, just get yourself out of there.'_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian cursed, wishing that she still had her gun from the War. As small as it had been, it would have been able to take the Dalek down easily.

She really needed to get another one of those. Surely the Doctor had the parts lying around somewhere.

The Dalek glided out of the vault, but instead of going for the humans, it moved over the computer. Oh, no.

The guard she had been arguing with spoke. "DeMaggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"

The female guard nodded and turned to Rose, Not-Mickey, and Orange Suit. "You, with me."

They ran off. The guard turned to the Guardian. "You need to get out, too!"

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "I have a much higher chance of surviving this than you do. I fought these things for eight centuries. _You_ get out now."

The Dalek used its sucker arm to smash the computer monitor. Electricity ran throughout its body, but this electricity restored it, mending the damage.

"Abandoning the Cage, sir!" The guard spoke into his communicator.

He and the Guardian ran. Behind them, they heard the Dalek shout.

"The Daleks survive in me!"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor hurried over to the hologram screen that Goddard had pulled up.

"We're losing power," she said. "It's draining the base. Oh, my god. It's draining the entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

"It's downloading."

"Downloading what?" Van Stattan asked behind him.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down."

"It's not just energy," the Doctor told her. "The Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything."

"The cameras in the vault have gone down."

No doubt the Dalek had just shot them out, practicing with its newly restored weapon. He turned to Van Stattan. "We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it now!" Before it killed the Guardian. She had gotten lucky earlier than it was more interested in restoring than killing the others in the Cage.

Goddard clearly understood the danger, even if her boss didn't. She gave the order for the guards to attack.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian easily caught up with Rose, Not-Mickey, and Orange Suit. A group of guards met them, and the female guard shouted for them to be let through.

Behind her, she heard the guard she had tried to save get shot by the Dalek, then the guards opened fire.

It was too similar. She had done this before—running through a bunker, a Dalek chasing after her. Rassilon was the Lord President. It had been her job to protect him, to get him to the safely of a transport ship that would take him from the ruined city to the Citadel in Arcadia. She had done it, but it had cost her.

That had been the only time that the Weapon had died.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Van Statten shouted.

"But it's killing them!"

"They're dispensable. That Dalek is unique."

The Doctor nearly punched Van Statten. How could he be so absorbed in himself that he didn't care about the men who they were hearing _die?_

Van Statten spoke into the comm. "I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?"

The gunfire stopped.

They were all dead.

 _'Amadahy, are you alright?"_

 _'Kind of running for my life right now, Eltanin.'_ The Guardian snapped back. The Doctor grinned. She was fine. She could run faster than any of the apes down there, and run longer.

Goddard pulled up a schematic of the base and showed them where they were and where the Dalek was.

"This museum of yours—have you got any alien weapons?"

"Lots of them," Goddard responded. "But the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive." Van Statten insisted. "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

The Doctor slapped his hands on the desk, making Goddard and Van Statten jump. "Leaving the Guardian trapped down there? Not a chance. You were wrong, Van Statten: I'm not the last of my people. The Guardian comes from the same planet I do. And she's my fiancee. I. Am. Not. Abandoning. Her." He was in Van Statten's face by the last word.

There was a brief staring contest and then Van Statten backed down.

The Doctor turned back to Goddard. He gestured to a spot on the screen. "It's got to go through this area. What's that?"

"Weapons testing."

"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

And as soon as this was over, the Doctor was going to make sure that the Guardian had a gun that could work on the skin of a Dalek. Because no matter what he had said, if one Dalek escaped, there had to be more out there.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Stairs! That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!"

The Guardian charged past her, up the stairs. "Rose Bloody Tyler, do you think we didn't have stairs on Gallifrey? It can bloody fly!"

She heard Rose and Not-Mickey hurry after her. At some point, they had lost Orange Suit. Whether he had fallen behind or stayed behind, the Guardian didn't know.

Far beneath her, she heard DeMaggio talking to the Dalek.

"It's not interested in negotiating! The only thing it wants is us all dead!"

"Exterminate!"

The Guardian clutched her head at DeMaggio's death-scream. It was too similar.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor."

The Doctor tried to ignore Van Statten as he focused on the computer screen.

"If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something."

He didn't even look up. "What's the nearest town?"

"Salt Lake City."

"Population?"

"One million."

"All dead." The Doctor looked up to see Van Statten shake his head in disbelief. "If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs."

"But why would it do that?" Van Stattan shouted.

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose!"

The Doctor spoke to the assembled guards and scientists over the comm. "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through."

No one responded, so the Doctor tried again. "Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

The commander responded this time. "Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot."

"You idiot!" The Doctor snapped. This man was going to get everyone in that room killed!

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Rose and Not-Mickey stopped when they reached to room filled with armed guards.

"Move, you idiots!" The Guardian shoved them both forward. They ran to the other side of the room, past the trap for the Dalek.

Again, they stopped.

Oh, for the love of Clom, this was getting ridiculous.

Again, the Guardian shoved them forward, just as the Dalek slid into view.

"It was looking at me!" Rose shouted as they ran.

"Yep," the Guardian snapped. "It revived itself by extrapolating your DNA. You'd better hope it doesn't realize that it doesn't realize that it also got a little bit of your DNA mixed with its own."

"Why?" Not-Mickey asked.

"Because then she'd take my place on its list of people it wants dead. And that's Number One."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Everyone in the office stood in shock as the Dalek killed every guard and technician with a single shot and the sprinkler system.

The Doctor looked down. He had genuinely thought there was a chance for all those people.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

Goddard didn't even bother to conceal her disgust at her boss. "Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out."

"You said we could seal the vault?" The Doctor asked reluctantly. He had to believe that there was enough time for the Guardian to get to safety.

Van Statten moved to sit at the computer. "It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads—"

"There's not enough power." Goddard interrupted. "Those bulkheads are massive."

"We've got emergency power." The Doctor pointed out. "We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors."

"We'd have to bypass the security codes! That would take a computer genius."

"Good think you've got me, then." Van Statten interjected.

"You want to help?" The Doctor asked, surprised.

"I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me."

"Sir?" There was something different in Goddard's voice.

The Doctor turned to the monitor on the wall.

The Dalek stared at the camera, water still pouring around it. "I shall speak only to the Doctor."

The Doctor straightened slowly. What if something had happened?

 _'Amadahy?'_

 _'Still running for my life with two humans who like to linger!'_

She was safe. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "You're going to get rusty."

"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveler regenerated me."

"What's your next trick?" That was _not_ regeneration.

"I have been searching for the Daleks."

The Doctor walked up to the monitor. "Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes."

"And?"

"Nothing." Its voice turned almost frantic. "Where shall I get my orders now?"

"You're just a soldier without commands."

"Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy—to conquer!"

"What for? What's the point?" He nearly shouted. The Dalek didn't reply. "Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for."

If it wasn't for the Guardian, it would be the same for him.

"Then what should I do?" The Dalek asked.

Here was his chance. His last chance to make sure that the Guardian got out of this alive. "All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one: kill yourself."

"The Daleks must survive!"

"The Daleks have failed!" The Doctor snapped. "Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth! Why don't you just die?" He spat the final words.

The Dalek was silent for a long time. Then, "You would make a good Dalek."

The monitor went blank. The Doctor stared at the black screen, stunned. In nearly the two thousand years he had lived, no one had ever likened him to a Dalek. What had he become?

"Seal the vaults." This needed to end. The Guardian could make it.

Van Statten began typing. "I can leech power off the ground defenses, feed it to the bulkheads. It's been years since I had to work this fast."

"Are you enjoying this?" The Doctor snapped, looking up from his own typing for just a moment.

"Doctor," Goddard said. "She's still down there."

The Doctor nodded his thanks. At least one of the humans seemed to care that he was putting his fiancee in even more danger to save them. He typed in a command to call Rose, since the Guardian was too focused to mentally contact.

 _~"This isn't the best time."~_ Rose answered.

"Where are you?"

 _~"Level forty-nine."~_

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty-six."

 _~"Can't you stop them closing?"~_

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Run if you want to live."

Then he tried to contact the Guardian once more.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _'Bulkheads closing. Level forty-six. Run.'_

The Guardian heard the warning. They still had one more level. The Dalek was just behind them. In that moment, her decision was made.

"Rose, run!" She shouted ahead.

The girl and Not-Mickey stopped and turned back.

"I said, 'run'! And if you even hint to the Doctor that I am not with you…" She let her voice trail off. The Doctor would never do what needed to be done if he knew that she was staying behind.

Rose ran, but Not-Mickey—no, Adam—stayed. "This is insane! Come with us!"

The Guardian pulled out her two most-powerful guns. They wouldn't stop the Dalek, but they could slow it down. "Run, Adam. This is the only chance."

He hesitated.

"Run!" She shouted.

Several moments later, she heard the klaxon sound as the bulkheads began to close. She couldn't help but pray to the Gallifreyan deities that she didn't even believe in anymore that Rose and Adam made it to safety.

 _'Amadahy, what the hell are you doing?'_

The Guardian blinked, tears coming at the sound of the Doctor's panicked anger. _'_ _I did what you would have done. I put my life in place of theirs._ _'_

 _'Amadahy, no!'_

She laughed weakly. ' _What, so you can make grand gestures and nearly get yourself killed, but I can't? What would happen to me if you died? I don't know this Universe like you do. I'd die within days, even with my training. You traveled without me before, you could do it again.'_ She took a deep breath. Any second now.

 _'Amadahy!'_

The Dalek rolled into view.

 _'Good-bye, Eltanin. I love you.'_

She began firing until her guns ran out and she tossed them aside. She had more guns, but she had never planned on getting out of this anyway. "You should be proud of yourself, Dalek."

If she was going to die, then the Dalek was going to know who she was. "Last Dalek in the Universe, and you get to kill me."

"Identify yourself!"

She smirked. "I'm the Weapon."

The Dalek wheeled forward slightly. "You are the greatest enemy of the Daleks! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Then it fired.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor collapsed as he heard the Guardian's death-scream forty-six levels down. Then he felt her presence leave his mind. She was dead. His Promised was dead. The Guardian of the Lord President. The Last Immortal.

His Amadahy.

He was alone. His mind, empty of every last Gallifreyan voice.

And all because of one man. He forced himself to his feet and charged at Van Statten, grabbing the man by his jacket and slamming him against the wall. "I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me!"

"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten struggled, but he was no match for the Warrior.

"Your collection?" He spat. "But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth the Guardian? Because of you, I truly am the last of my kind! Will your collection be worth it when I kill you for killing her?"

He vaguely heard others shouting for him to stop. Then he heard the Dalek.

 _~"Open the bulkhead, or the Weapon dies."~_

The Doctor dropped Van Statten and turned to the monitor. An unfamiliar woman stood in front of the Dalek's laser, wearing a slightly burnt version of the Guardian's clothes. She had curly dark red hair, and her posture was more open, more confident.

He ran over to the monitor. "You're alive?" He couldn't believe it.

The woman smiled. _~"You didn't think that you could get rid of me that easily, did you, darling?"~_ Her accent was Scottish now.

It was her. She hadn't called him 'darling' since her last regeneration before the War. The Doctor smiled back, tears filling his eyes. "I thought you were dead."

 _~"Open the bulkhead!"~_ The Dalek interrupted the Guardian's reply.

 _~"And why should he?"~_ The Guardian asked, turning slightly.

The Doctor winced at her risky action. So this new regeneration was a danger magnet, too. There went the dark hair of his current regeneration.

 _~"Silence!"~_ The Dalek cried. _~"What use are emotions, Doctor, if you will not save the woman you love?"~_

The Doctor hesitated, wishing that he could talk to the Guardian. But she must have severed their mental bond just before the Dalek shot her, to spare him feeling the pain of her death, even if she couldn't stop him from hearing it. Their mental bond wouldn't be fully reestablished until they could see each other face-to-face and make eye contact again.

Then he saw it. A tiny nod from the Guardian. She knew something that he didn't. They had an advantage.

He looked around. Rose and the English boy had joined them at some point. Everyone was waiting for his answer.

"She was murdered once. I'm not going to lose her again." He pressed the 'Enter' key.

The screen went dark, and everyone erupted.

"Who the hell was that woman?" Van Statten's voice was, unsurprisingly, the loudest.

The Doctor smiled at him. "That, Van Statten, was the Guardian. And you thought the two hearts was impressive."

"What happened?" Rose demanded.

The Doctor frowned. "Humans. We've got a psychopath on its way up, and you're asking personal questions."

"Well, then, what the hell do we do?" Van Statten snapped.

"Kill it when it gets here." The English boy spoke. He caught the Doctor's eye. "That's why the Guardian stayed back, to give us time."

Hm. Perhaps there was more to this kid than appeared.

"All the guns are useless," Goddard snapped. "And the alien weapons are in the vault."

"Only the cataloged ones."

So that was what the Guardian had known.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Adam quickly showed the Doctor to his workshop. The Doctor dug through piles of broken guns, guns that weren't strong enough, and hairdryers until he found one that would work.

He returned to Van Statten's office to find the Dalek and the Guardian had arrived. Van Statten cowered against a wall, while Rose stood in front of the Dalek.

"Get out of the way!" He shouted, lifting his gun.

Rose turned at the same time the Guardian did. The Doctor felt the mental connection snap back in place.

 _'Eltanin, she's trying to talk good into the Dalek.'_

He swallowed, his dread rising. "Rose, get out of the way now."

"No! I won't let you do this!"

"That thing murdered hundreds of people just today," the Guardian told her.

"It murdered the Guardian," the Doctor added.

Confusion crossed Rose's face for a moment, then it was gone. "It's not the one pointing the gun at me!"

"He has to do this, Rose," the Guardian said. "The Daleks have destroyed everything I ever knew, and this one will do the same thing to your world. Somewhere out there is a future version of you. Do you really want to spend the next six years knowing what will happen to the world because of the decision you make right now?"

Now Rose looked hurt at the idea that she wasn't still traveling with him and the Guardian. As if he would let her continue traveling with them after this.

"But it's changing," Rose protested, tears in her eyes.

"It's mutating, Rose," the Doctor responded.

"Into what?" The Dalek cried suddenly.

 _'Are you ready?'_ The Doctor asked the Guardian.

 _'When you are.'_

"Rose Tyler's DNA did more than just regenerate you. You absorbed her DNA. It made you a hybrid."

"A hybrid is impure!" The Dalek cried. "She has corrupted me! Exterminate!"

But the Guardian was already in motion. She pulled Rose away from the Dalek and against the wall. Its shot hit the wall behind the Doctor.

The Doctor fired his gun, and bits of Dalek went everywhere with a loud _bang_.

He stared at the smoking remains of the Dalek casing. The entire upper half was gone, the organic part scattered all over the room. Another race destroyed by him.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to look into the Guardian's new green eyes.

 _"Why did you forgive me so easily for what I did?"_ He murmured in Gallifreyan, ignoring the humans in the room.

The Guardian smiled. _"Because I know that you made the only choice you could. Even though I don't remember the last days of the War, I know there was something else going on. Rassilon was plotting something. Something worse than the War."_

The Doctor frowned at that thought—that there could have been something worse than the War going on, but then the Guardian's smile turned flirty.

"I seem to have a new pair of lips that need breaking in. Care to help with that?"

He grinned and kissed her deeply, just so thankful that she was alive, even if she had lost yet another life, not that she was too concerned about it. That was one of the benefits of being an Immortal. Not even the scientists employed by the High Council could limit the number of her regenerations.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian could tell that the Doctor was furious with Rose. He hadn't spoken a word to the girl since the Dalek had died, despite the girl's attempts to ask questions about regeneration. She had been forced to answer, and she had only given the bare minimum of responses, mostly because she had no idea of what a normal regeneration was like.

"I was wrong, alright?" Rose snapped desperately as the neared the TARDIS.

"Wrong, you say?" The Doctor whirled around to face her. "What you did was idiotic! You should have listened to the Guardian when she first told you not to get near it."

"It was an accident!"

The Guardian grabbed the Doctor's shoulders in an attempt to calm him. That was new. Her calming him.

"The Guardian _died_ because of your 'accident'."

"But she's right there!"

The Doctor made a sound of disgust and walked over to the TARDIS, unlocking it and disappearing inside. The Guardian turned back to Rose. "I might still be alive, but the previous me died. I'm a different person from the one that tried to stop you earlier. Not just my appearance, but my mannerisms as well. And I truly could have died. The Dalek barely missed my right heart, which allowed me to regenerate."

She glanced in the direction of the TARDIS and lowered her voice. "But a few more centimeters and I wouldn't be here right now to keep the Doctor from dropping you off on a desert planet and leaving you there. Be grateful he is only going to take you home."

The Guardian looked past a now-terrified Rose to see Adam hurrying over to them. "Adam, you mentioned your fascination with outer space. How would you like to see it?"

The young man's eyes widened. "Do you mean it? I mean, I know that you're an alien and all, but Goddard says they're going to fill this place with cement."

"Of course I mean it. You tried your best to save my life. And your cache of weapons helped save the world. We just have to drop Rose off at her home, and then the stars are yours." The Guardian led Adam and Rose—who seemed terrified of being left behind—to the TARDIS.

"You're going to get inside that box?" Adam exclaimed. "They said _cement_!" Then he saw the inside of the TARDIS. "It's bigger on the inside!"

The Guardian grinned. Now she understood how much the Doctor loved it when people said that.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **We have a new Guardian! I imagine her as looking like Scarlett Johnasson did in _Iron Man 2_ , and her theme is "Ice Of Phoenix", by Audiomachine. **

**Writing this episode was interesting, as it's not a favorite of mine. I feel like, in the writer's attempt to "show the Doctor his humanity", they completely disrespected his PTSD. I mean, seriously, the man spent X-number of year hundreds of years fighting these creatures, and you're going to make him feel like a monster for holding a gun on one of them? Seriously?!**

 **There was about a gazillion other things that annoyed me about this episode, but I think the Guardian expressed that frustration for me quite well.**

 **So, I might as well explain about what the Guardian is, since I don't think we'll be getting more details for a while now. Basically, when the Guardian stood before the Untempered Schism as a child, her reaction was a far rarer (not quite unheard of, but close) one—the Untempered Schism actually altered her biology, making her functionally immortal—she has an infinite number of regenerations. (Hence the name, Immortal.) That's why she was chosen for the position of Guardian of the Lord President—she could survive the training and live long enough to make it all worth it. She personally lost count of her regenerations a long time ago (plus there was the time that she can't remember), but for the sake of numbers, she is on her 444th incarnation. I have it planned for her to talk a bit about it in my rewrite of Series Three, but that's still a bit off.**

 **Next time: With Rose not present, how will Adam's time with the Gallifreyans go differently? How short will it be? Plus, the Doctor and the Guardian get a surprise visitor from their future. And… is that a wedding on the horizon?!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Long Game

**I don't own anything except the Guardian and a couple of other surprise characters...**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian landed the TARDIS, then glanced around the empty console room. Adam was gone already. She had taken him to a quiet planet, only to find that he had stolen a few pieces of technology from the aliens, with the intent of selling them once he got back to Earth.

She had taken him directly to his house and wiped his memory of having ever met them. As far as he knew, he had simply been fired by Van Statten and been luck enough to get away with his identity.

She walked down the corridor to the Doctor's room.

He hadn't been seen since they had dropped Rose off—threw her out, more like. The Guardian had been forced to deal with Adam all by herself. Though, that might have been a good thing. She wasn't sure how the Doctor would react to two betrayals by his favorite species in such close succession.

At the Doctor's bedroom door, the Guardian hesitated. He had mentally closed himself off. Perhaps he didn't want to see her. Did he not like this new her?

She pulled her new red hair in front of her. Other than her physical appearance and a slightly less prickly personality—despite her new Scottish accent—not much had changed. She still preferred a black leather jacket and combat boots. She still carried more guns than the Doctor would approve of if he knew.

She still loved him.

But did he think that she had changed too much?

Or was he just that angry about Rose?

The Guardian knocked on the door, her confidence restored. A moment later, the Doctor opened it, looking tired.

 _"Yes?"_ He nearly snapped the word.

The Guardian raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. _"We just landed. I thought you_ _needed an adventure, so I told the TARDIS to take us someplace exciting_ _."_

The Doctor nodded too quickly. _"Of course. One moment."_ He disappeared into the room and reappeared a moment later carrying his jacket. He took her hand as they walked to the doors. The TARDIS had landed in a space station.

"Looks like the year 200,000." The Doctor looked around, then pointed at a gate. "Let's try that."

The gate lead them to an observation deck, surveying a much-changed Earth.

"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," the Doctor said. "And there it is, planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population: ninety-six billion."

"And the humans were saying that the Earth was over populated when it was only 7 billion," the Guardian murmured.

Seven billion. Such a tiny number compared to the eight trillion Time Lords that had been on Gallifrey before the War. Earth was such an empty planet.

"Guardian?"

She ignored the Doctor's voice to stare at the planet. She wrapped her arms around herself, despite the heat. While the last her hand been perturbed by the quiet in her mind, it seemed that the new her couldn't bear it. The only other Gallifreyan in the Universe was beside her.

No one else.

They were alone in a universe filled with life.

She jumped when arms circled her waist, pinning her jacket to her, cutting her off from her guns.

 _'It's okay, Amadahy,'_ the Doctor whispered in her mind.

She didn't relax. So she still hated surprises. _'It's so empty.'_

He pulled her back again his chest. _'I know.'_

The Guardian squeezed her eyes shut. No, he didn't. As guardian of the Lord President, her life had been carefully arranged. She had very little contact with her people, except in her mind. During the loneliest, most painful nights of her training, she had listened to the 8 trillion voices in her head. Unlike most Gallifreyans, she had actually learned how to listen in on unguarded thoughts. She was by no means a telepath, but those skills had helped her save the Lord President multiple times, just from picking up an assassin's stray thoughts.

Now she had nothing to drown out her own thoughts.

She pulled away from the Doctor, forcing a flirty smile. "You promised me a history lesson."

He looked reluctant to drop the subject, but followed her back to the main room. "Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire—fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners—"

The Guardian cut him off to push him aside as a man hurried by with a shout of "out of the way". Suddenly, the room was filled with people as food vending stations opened up and patrons began pushing their way towards the front, to purchase something called a "kronkburger".

The Doctor looked around, confused. The Guardian made her way through the people to get a look at the food—if the mysterious meat patties could be called that. She slipped back over to the Doctor.

"I knew your taste in food was strange, but I thought you at least understood that." She wrapped her arm around his and pulled him away from the crowd. It seemed that this body was even more nervous around crowds than her first had been.

The Doctor frowned. "My watch must be wrong." He glanced at it. "No, it's fine. That's weird."

"Hm… Seems your history wasn't quite so accurate as you claim it is." The Guardian smiled.

"My history's perfect!" The Doctor defended, his eyebrows raising in offense.

The Guardian raised an eyebrow of her own. "Oh, really? Says the man who believed that the _entire_ population died in Vesuvius's eruption. Even I knew that it was only a tenth of the population."

"How did you know that anyway?"

The Guardian shrugged. "Studying the human reaction to advance warning in a disaster." She frowned, noticing something. "Speaking of humans—this is the year 200,000. So why aren't there any aliens?"

The Doctor looked around again, noticing what she did. "You're right. So where are they?" He pulled her over to a pair of well-dressed young women. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?"

"Floor One-Three-Nine." The Guardian and one of the women spoke at the same time. The Guardian rolled her eyes and gestured to the numbers painted on the wall. "Darling, what have I told you about paying better attention? This is like the London Eye all over again."

"Oi! I suppose you know where we are then, don't you?"

The Guardian started to shake her head when she heard a tiny voice whisper " _Satellite Five_ " into her mind. She frowned. How…? She hadn't heard any stray thoughts from the two women—humans weren't telepathic enough for her to do that. And it hadn't been a stray thought…

"Satellite Five," she told the Doctor. "Am I correct?"

"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" The same woman as before spoke again.

The Doctor shrugged. "Look at me, I'm stupid!"

"Sometimes..." the Guardian muttered.

' _Oi!'_

The other woman spoke. "Hold on, wait a minute. Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

The Doctor nodded, pretending that they had been caught. "You've got us. Well done. You're too clever for me." He showed the women the psychic paper. The Guardian glanced at the paper to see that it identified them as management staff, John Smith and Allegra Shannon.

The two women suddenly looked nervous. "We were warned about this in basic training," the cleverer woman spoke, more to her companion. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

The other woman straightened. "Right, fire away. Ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500, I'll do anything."

The Guardian frowned. "What happens on Floor 500?"

She looked at the Guardian strangely. "The walls are made of gold. And you should know, Miss Management. So, this is what we do." She walked over to a collection of wall monitors.

The other young woman gave them a shy smile before the three of them followed her.

"Latest news: sandstorms on the New Venus Archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space Lane Seventy-Seven—"

"So, you broadcast the news," the Guardian interrupted, a little annoyed that the woman couldn't just say so.

The woman laughed a little. "We are the news. We're the journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it. Six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going through us."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The two women, Cathica and Suki, as they discovered, brought them into one of the newsrooms. Seven people, including Suki, sat around an octagonal desk with Cathica in the center beside a chair with wires connected. The Doctor and the Guardian took their place to one side.

"Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection." She turned back to them. "How do you want it, by the book?"

"Right from scratch, thanks." The Doctor smiled at the Guardian as Cathica turned away.

"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni." She turned back to the Gallifreyans again. "That's Cathica with a 'c', in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please do."

The Guardian barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. _'She really wants that promotion.'_

The Doctor nodded stiffly at Cathica.

"Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."

 _'I doubt I'll ever see the day when humans are capable of being unbiased.'_ The Doctor spoke into the Guardian's mind, his voice bitter.

"Actually, um," Suki spoke. "It's the law."

 _'That sounds more like humans,'_ the Guardian replied to the Doctor. _'Making laws and assuming that they will actually stop the actions.'_ She looked at him carefully, concerned. He seemed so bitter again his favorite species now, thanks to Rose's actions. And he hadn't even asked about Adam. This wasn't the Doctor that she knew.

Frowning slightly, the Guardian moved closer to the Doctor, taking his hand, and turned her attention back to Cathica.

"Here we go." She sat down in the central chair. "And engage safety."

The seven people around the desk held their hands over the palm-shaped cradles in front of them. Lights around the room came on, and whatever machine they were using powered up. Cathica clicked her fingers.

A portal in her forehead opened.

The Guardian winced, while the Doctor frowned. ' _That's not right_ ,'he muttered.

The seven people put their hands in the cradles, all of them seeming to go limp as they did so.

"And three...two….and spike." A beam of energy shined into her portal from the machine above, bending slightly to hit its target.

 _'Compressed information?'_ The Guardian asked.

The Doctor nodded. _'She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer.'_

 _'And as soon as her portal closes, she forgets it all.'_ The Guardian's frown deepened. _'Doctor, the last time we saw anything like this, it was a hundred years ago.'_

 _'I know. Something's wrong.'_

Suddenly, Suki pulled her hands away as if she had been shocked. Each of the light panels went out as the other six people lifted their hands. The information beam stopped and Cathica's portal closed.

She blinked a few times, as though waking up, while Suki rubbed her hands in pain. The Guardian frowned.

"Come off it, Suki." Cathica snapped. "I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"

"Sorry, it must have been a glitch," Suki whispered.

The Guardian walked over to the woman and held her hands so they were palm up. There were no visible markings. A shock like she had received should have left slight burns. Unless….

 _'Don't they have chips in their hands_ _and the backs of their heads_ _?'_ She asked the Doctor, glancing back at him.

He frowned, realizing the same thing she had.

"Promotion."

The Guardian looked up to see a screen open up on the wall. She heard Cathica begging for her name to be called, as if the management on Floor 500 could hear her and make their decision based on that.

"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor 500."

Suki's mouth dropped open and she stood, making the Guardian release her hands. She walked towards the screen. "I don't believe it. Floor 500!"

"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you!" Cathica snapped.

"I don't know. I just applied on the off chance. And they've said yes!" Suki smiled excitedly.

"So not fair. I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years."

The Guardian watched Cathica sigh in disgust, her arms crossed. This was most definitely not good.

 _'First Suki's chip shocks her, then she gets a promotion?'_ The Doctor spoke.

The Guardian nodded, frowning.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian and the Doctor followed a giddy Suki and angry Cathica to the lift that would take Suki to Floor 500. Despite Cathica's clear body language, Suki still gave her a perky good-bye before turning to the Doctor and the Guardian. "Floor 500. Thank you."

"We didn't do anything," the Doctor replied.

"Well, you're my lucky charms." She smiled, and moved to hug them.

The Guardian forced yet another smile as she and the Doctor hugged the girl, who laughed again.

She suddenly pulled away, her eyes wide. "I've got to go! I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry!" She hurried towards the door, shouting behind her, "Say good-bye to Steve for me. Bye!"

The lift door closed.

Cathica crossed her arms again. "Good riddance."

The Doctor frowned. "You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs."

"We won't. Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back."

The Guardian felt her eyes widen a tiny bit. That _really_ did not sound good. But what could be going on up there? "Have you ever been up there?" She asked Cathica and they turned and walked back through the cafeteria.

"Can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with a promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few," she finished bitterly.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor, in his typical manner, kept asking Cathica questions about Floor 500. All she knew was the nonsense about the walls being made of gold and that it was the top floor of Satellite Five. The highest job level.

"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?" Cathica asked as they walked back into the newsroom.

"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor sat in the center chair.

"I went to Floor Sixteen when I first arrived—that's medical. That's when I got my head done. And then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat, and sleep on the same floor and that's it, that's all."

 _'Out of the chair.'_

Cathica sighed. "You're not management, are you?"

"At last she gets it." The Guardian muttered, pushing the Doctor's shoulder to get him up.

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

"You don't even ask." The Guardian snapped. What was it with humans and their selective blindness?

"Well, why would I?"

The Doctor stood, finally listening to the Guardian. "You're a journalist!"

Cathica finally looked up from her paperwork.

"Why's all the crew human?" The Doctor asked.

"What's that go to do with anything?"

"There's no aliens on board. Why?"

The Guardian couldn't stop a tiny smirk. Technically, there _were_ aliens on board. Not that anyone knew that.

Cathica shook her head. "I don't know."

The Guardian sighed in frustration.

"No real reason. They're not banned or anything."

"Then where are they?" The Guardian nearly snapped.

"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."

"What threats?" The Doctor pressed.

"I don't know!" Cathica took a breath. "Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled, so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

The Guardian walked over to stand in front of Cathica, blocking her from heading towards the door. "Adding up to one great big fact. You didn't even notice."

Cathica rolled her eyes. "I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."

 _'Unless Satellite Five is involved.'_

 _'Exactly, Amadahy.'_

"We can see better," the Doctor said to Cathica. "This society's the wrong shape—even the technology."

"It's cutting edge!"

"It's backwards!" The Guardian responded. "There's a hole in your head. You should have moved on from this years ago."

The Doctor moved over to join them. "It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would you know?" Cathica snapped.

"Humanity's been held back about a hundred years."

"Specifically ninety years," the Doctor added. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

Cathica thought for a moment, then her expression froze. "Ninety-one years ago."

The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged a look. There it was. Even Cathica seemed to understand that.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"We are so going to get in trouble," Cathica hissed.

The Guardian glanced over from where she was helping the Doctor break into a computer cupboard. "Button it." She said.

"You're not allowed to touch the mainframe." Cathica continued. "You're going to get told off."

"I'd like to see them try."

"You can't just vandalize the place. Someone's going to notice!"

The doors to the cupboard unlocked. The Guardian smirked at her. "You'd be surprised how often people fail to notice us. Especially humans."

The Doctor pulled one door open. He used the sonic to make things sputter and spark.

"This is nothing to do with me." Cathica moved away. "I'm going back to work."

"Good," the Guardian replied. "We don't need you."

Cathica turned back with a sigh of frustration. "I can't just leave you, can I?"

"Tell us what's wrong with the heating, if you want to be useful." The Doctor said.

"I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

"'Something to do with the turbine'," the Doctor repeated mockingly.

"Well, I don't know!"

The Doctor turned away from the cupboard. "Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica."

"Why is it so hot?" The Guardian snagged the sonic screwdriver.

Cathica sighed again. "One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!"

"Well, never underestimate plumbing," the Doctor replied, proving that he had not, in fact, given up on Cathica. "Plumbing's very important."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Several minutes of fiddling later and the Guardian was able to pull up the interior schematics of Satellite Five, specifically those of the plumbing, on a monitor.

The Guardian frowned, looking closer. "Look at that layout."

"This is ridiculous," Cathica said. She moved over to do as the Guardian said. "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange... And you're looking at pipes?"

"There's something wrong." The Guardian replied.

Cathica looked again. "I suppose."

"What do you see?" The Doctor asked.

 _'Why are you still trying?'_ The Guardian asked him.

 _'She can see it. She's connected to the computer. If anyone can shut it down, it's her.'_

The Guardian gave him a tiny nod. She had to agree. For once, the human was completely necessary. They might not be able to fix whatever this problem was without Cathica.

"What do you see?" She repeated.

"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters. All working flat-out channeling massive amounts of heat down." She looked up. Finally, she seemed to be getting it.

"All the way from the top. Floor 500."

The Doctor said, "Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."

"So, anyone feel like a trip upstairs?" The Guardian pulled one of her guns out to check it.

Cathica's eyes widened. "You can't. You need a key."

"Keys are just codes," the Guardian replied, putting away her gun. "And hacking codes happens to be one of my specialties." And one of the few things that she appreciated her training in. After nearly a hundred years of training and another fourteen hundred years of practice, she could hack into some of the most advanced computer systems in the Universe.

She moved forward to try and hack in some more, but a code was already displayed on the monitor.

 _215.9976/31_

"How come it's giving you the code?" Cathica asked.

The Guardian looked up in the camera. "Someone on Floor 500 wants to meet us."

Cathica followed them to the lift, almost begging them not to go.

"Come with us," the Doctor offered.

She shook her head. "No way."

"Then good-bye." The Guardian stepped inside, followed by the Doctor.

"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just… don't involve me." She ran off.

The doors closed. The Guardian took the Doctor's hand and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

 _'Just us again.'_ He said.

 _'Yeah. Adam was a terrible choice for a companion.'_ She admitted.

The Doctor squeezed her hand. _'We all make mistakes. Like I did with Rose.'_ There was silence between them for several moments as the lift continued to move.

 _'How about, if we survive this, we get married?' H_ e asked suddenly.

The Guardian blinked with surprise. She had been hoping the subject would come up soon, even before she regenerated, but hadn't wanted to rush him. It had been nearly seventeen hundred years since his first wife died, but remarrying was a huge step, even when you had been talking about it for a thousand years.

 _'That would be fantastic.'_ She purposely used his favorite word.

He grinned broadly, just as the lift doors opened. They walked into the cold room. Ice and frost covered every surface. The Guardian noticed footprints in the frost, and they followed those to a room filled with computers. A pale man stood over half a dozen staff, all of them covered in frost as well. Suki was among them.

"I started without you," the pale man breathed a laugh. The Doctor and the Guardian walked into the room.

"This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two, you don't exist." He chuckled. "Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

"It's a gift." The Guardian moved over to one of the workers. "They're all dead. But the chips in them keep going."

"Like puppets." The Doctor's disgust was evident.

"Oh!" The pale man exclaimed. "You're so full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor replied. "Because we're off. Nice to meet you."

They started to move away, but the worker the Guardian had been examining grabbed her arm. She easily broke the dead worker's arm and freed herself, only to see that two of the other workers had grabbed the Doctor.

 _'Amadahy, we can learn something.'_

The Guardian glared at him and allowed two more workers to grab her.

"Tell me who you are." The pale man insisted.

"First rule of interrogation: you're the only indispensable person in the room." The Guardian recited. "Since the floor happens to be ours right now, we're really not interested in giving up the information that is keeping us alive."

The man smirked. "Well, perhaps my Editor-in-Chief can convince you otherwise."

"And who's that?" The Doctor asked.

The Guardian began looking around. Something was off. Freezing cold level, while all the other ones were overheated with the heat being pumped down. She glanced up and froze.

"It may interest you to know that it is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful _Human_ Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live."

The giant, gelatinous lump hanging from the ceiling growled and snarled, revealing a set of very nasty teeth.

The pale man reacted to the growling as though he was being told off. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry." He refocused on the Gallifreyans. "It's a place where humans are _allowed_ to live by kind permission of my client."

The Guardian heard a snap and the creature snarled again.

"That thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" The Doctor asked, his voice horrified.

"'That thing', as you put it, is in charge of the human race."

The Guardian finally took her eyes off the creature to look at the pale man. In the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor do the same thing.

"For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news,edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy HadrojassicMaxarodenfoe." His voice dropped. "I call him Max."

The Doctor forced a smile, and the next thing they knew the workers had forced them into two sets of very strong manacles. The Guardian couldn't even get out of them without breaking her hands.

"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed." The Editor explained. "It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So you've turned the human race into slaves." The Doctor stated.

"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes," the Guardian replied immediately.

The Editor frowned in disappointment. "Oh, I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? 'Yes'?"

"Yes." She didn't need to debate that particular point. She knew its truth all too well. She hadn't realized that she was a slave until the High Council had demanded she stop seeing the Doctor, forbidding any interactions between them.

"You're no fun."

"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much find I am." She could kill him in a second.

"Oh, so tough. I bet you like that," he said to the Doctor. "But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it—just a little bit."

"And you use the chips to see inside their brains," the Guardian deduced.

The Editor nodded. "I can see the smallest doubt and crush it."

The Guardian saw movement beyond the computer room.

 _'Eltanin, Catica.'_

 _'I see her.'_

 _'Distraction time.'_

"So," the Doctor finally spoke aloud, interrupting the Editor. "I take it being human doesn't pay very well, that's why you're helping the Jagrafess."

"But you couldn't have done this all on your own, so you must have financiers." The Guardian added.

"I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself.

"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?"

"Three thousand years."

The Doctor nodded. "That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system."

The Editor looked confused as to why the Doctor was explaining everything, but Cathica finally tore her gaze away from the Jagrafess. She gave the Guardian a single nod and moved out of sight.

"But that's why you're so dangerous. I really didn't want to do this, but knowledge is power, and you remain unknown."

He snapped his fingers and two of the workers walked out of the room. The Guardian stiffened, concerned for Cathica, but they returned dragging along a young woman with dark hair and pale, bruised skin.

"This is the Jagrafess's prize. She's a telepath. So unless you want her to tell me everything, you'd better tell me right now."

Both Gallifreyans were silent, staring at the poor girl.

"Three… Two… One…." The Editor snapped his fingers again and the bracelets around the girl's wrists surged with energy. She cried out. "Doctor…. Guardian…." She rasped.

"Who are they?"

"Leave her alone," the Doctor begged. The Guardian glanced over to see tears in his eyes as he looked at the girl. "I'm the Doctor. She's the Guardian. We're just wandering!"

The Editor smirked. "Who do they work for?"

When the girl didn't answer, he shocked her again. "Time Lords..."

"Show me!" The Editor shouted at the girl, moving closer. She carefully reached out and touched his face. They both closed their eyes.

A minute later, the Editor stood. "Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords and his Immortal in their traveling machine."

"I don't know what you're talking about." The Doctor tried, but the Guardian realized it was useless. If that girl was the one that told her they were on Satellite Five earlier, then she was a powerful telepath. Every piece of information that they didn't want the Editor having was now in his head.

"Time travel!" The Editor smiled. "Through this girl, I know everything about you. Everything that she saw in your heads is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The human empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S. TARDIS."

"We'd both die before letting you get your hands on it!" The Guardian replied.

"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The Editor reached down and yanked the girl's necklace off her. He held it out to reveal that a TARDIS key dangled from a long chain.

The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged confused looks. How had this girl gotten a TARDIS key?

"Oh, didn't I mention?" The Editor laughed. "This girl is from your future. She's your...companion. Naughty boy." He waved a finger scoldingly at the Doctor, then put the key in his pocket. "Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"And create a paradox as you do so," the Guardian snapped. "By stopping mankind from developing, you prevent yourself from being born. You would fade from existence."

The Editor smiled indulgently. "Such a lovely lie."

Just then, alarms went off. The Editor hurried over to the desks. "What's happening? Someone's disengaged the safety. Who's that?"

The Guardian smiled at the Doctor. It was Cathica at work, as the image on the monitor confirmed.

"She's thinking!" The Doctor said excitedly. "She's using what she knows."

"Terminate her access!"

"We told her everything about Satellite Five," the Guardian shouted at the Editor. "The pipes, the filters. Now watch her reverse it."

The icicles began melting.

"It's getting hot!"

"I said 'terminate'. Burn out her mind!"

The monitors and consoles began sparking and exploding. The workers collapsed. The Guardian's manacles broke open, and she immediately reached in the Doctor's pocket for the sonic screwdriver. He was free in a moment.

The Editor was desperately trying to stop Cathica's work.

"Oi, mate! Want to bank on a certainty?" The Doctor shouted as the Guardian hurried over to the telepath. "Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!"

The Guardian used the sonic screwdriver to free the girl of her bracelets, then helped her to her feet. "Doctor!" She shouted when the girl nearly collapsed again.

The Doctor hurried over and picked the girl up. They ran out of the room, through the halls as bits of ice began falling from the ceiling.

"This way!" The Guardian led them to a lit-up broadcast room, where Cathica sat in the chair, an information beam coming from her portal. Behind them, she heard the Jagrafess explode.

She snapped her fingers and Cathica woke up.

"You just set the human race free. Good job."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"We're just going to go," the Doctor was telling Cathica.

Satellite Five had been badly damaged when the Jagrafess exploded. All over Level 139, those who hadn't been injured were helping those who had. The Guardian sat beside the young telepath, Elia, as the girl ate her first proper meal in a long time.

"You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me," Cathia protested.

"You'll find that people will start believing a lot of things now that they're not scared into submission," the Guardian replied.

"What about you?" Cathica asked Elia.

She smiled. "I've already contacted a friend. They should be here any moment."

The sounds of TARDIS engines could be heard, as a big blue police box materialized. Elia stood and started to walk over.

"Elia," the Doctor called. She stopped and turned around. "I just wanted to say, I am so sorry for the future me letting you get captured by the Jagrafess."

Elia smiled sadly and walked back over. She hugged him. "The Guardian was right. You do feel like everything is your fault. But believe me when I say that it _wasn't_ your fault. I was taken for my abilities, not my connection to you." Her smile turned to more a teasing, secretive one. "And besides, you won't even realize it's me when you first meet me."

"I doubt that," the Doctor replied. "The Guardian has an eidetic memory. She remembers everyone."

"Spoilers." Elia walked over to the future TARDIS and stepped inside. The TARDIS faded away with the sound of brakes left on.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _Inside the TARDIS, Elia ran over to a redhead who didn't look much older than her. "It worked. He thought it was his TARDIS from the future."_

 _"Well, that's good. We can't implode the timelines too much, Mum would kill us." The ginger flipped a switch, transforming the TARDIS back into its proper, working-Chameleon Arch shape._

 _"You took a while finding me." Elia scolded, collapsing in the comfy chair beside the console. Just a few moments more._

 _"Sorry about that, Elia. Need I point out that you were the one to wander off?"_

 _"I was with the Jagrafess for a hundred years!"_

 _The ginger walked over and hugged her. "I'm sorry. But once you were captured and I realized you were at Satellite Five, I knew that you were the telepath that Mum once told us about. I couldn't save you."_

 _"How long has it been?"_

 _"_ _A couple of weeks."_

 _Elia grinned. "So I'm only_ _seven_ _years younger than you now?"_

 _The ginger smirked. "You're still my baby sister, and don't you forget that." She stepped back, seeing the golden glow of regeneration energy in her sister's hands and eyes. "I wish you didn't have to regenerate before me."_

 _Elia gave her sister a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I was getting bored with this body anyway."_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _"_ _So, what should we do now?"_ The Doctor asked as soon as they were in their TARDIS again. He ran around the console, flipping switches and pushing buttons. _"Name a galaxy? Save a species?"_ He turned to her. _"Get married?"_

The Guardian smiled. _"Of course. Find us a perfect suns-rise."_

While the Doctor piloted the TARDIS, the Guardian ran to her room to get ready. Gallifreyan weddings were always tradition-ridden affairs. Fortunately, they were eloping Old Gallifreyan-style, which was far more relaxed.

She dug through her wardrobe until she found a long white shirt. The handkerchief hem reached nearly to her knees. Technically, tradition said that a Gallifreyan bride wore a floor-length dress in her chapter colors, but the Guardian had no such affiliations. She was going to be married as herself, and that meant no dresses.

One fast shower and a change of clothes later and the Guardian stood in front of her mirror, observing her appearance. Everything about her seemed to scream in protest of Gallifreyan traditions. Trousers where there should be a dress. Her hair loose when it should be tortured into an elaborate style.

She was everything a Gallifreyan bride shouldn't be.

There was a knock on her door and she threw it open it a flirty smile. The Doctor stood there in a suit.

She raised one eyebrow. _"Well, you make one half of a very smartly dressed couple. Are we going out to dinner first?"_

He chuckled and shook his head.

 _"Then how about you change back into your leather jacket and that over-worn jumper?"_

He looked at her in surprise. _"But..."_

The Guardian shook her head. _"We're not on Gallifrey anymore. We should get married as ourselves."_

 _"Thank you."_ He grinned and disappeared down the corridor to his room.

The Guardian went to opposite direction, to the console room. The doors had been left open, so the Guardian went to see where they had ended up.

The suns hadn't quite begun to rise, but the air was filled with mist. She stepped into the wet field. The grass came up to her knees. The planet was silent. No even a bird chirped.

She heard and felt the Doctor join her. _"Where are we?"_

 _"The Silent Planet. It's never been habited. At this point in it's history, no one has ever even stepped foot on it."_

 _"_ _We're the first."_ She leaned back against his chest.

 _"_ _And this is the first morning of the second sun. The first time its light will shine on this planet."_

The Guardian smiled. It was perfect. Only now it seemed like the weight of what they were about to do hit her.

They were truly going to form a marriage bond. Forever. Gallifreyans had no system of divorce. This could never be undone or broken, not unless one of them died.

And the Doctor would finally see everything that had happened to her when she was a child. Everything her instructors had done to her in training.

 _"_ _Amadahy."_ He turned her in his arms so that she was facing him. _"Are you sure?"_

Her smile trembled a little _. "Are you?"_ He was the one who had been married before, and from what she had heard, his first wife had been the opposite of her.

 _"_ _Yes."_ He bent slightly to rest his forehead against hers. _"I, Eltanin, younger son of the House of Lungbarrow, known as the Doctor, choose to bind my life and mind to yours from this day forward."_

The Guardian felt tears slip down her cheeks. _"I, Amadahy, daughter of Arcadia, known as the Guardian, choose to bind my life and mind to yours from this day forward."_

 _"I swear to protect you with my lives."_

 _"That's my job,"_ she teased. They both laughed a little. _"I swear to protect your conscience. You will never_ _again_ _have to make a choice between the Universe and a species, as long as I am here."_

He sighed. _"Thank you."_ Gently, he kissed her. And with that kiss, they opened their minds, allowing each other to see everything.

Behind them, the twin suns appeared over the horizon, bathing the field in golden light.  
GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **First of all, I am sorry this is a week late. Some things came up that prevented me from readying the chapter to publish.**

 **Now we have our first real look at this new Guardian!**

 **And now they're married! But believe me, this is in NO WAY the beginning of happily ever after. Actually, quite the opposite. I feel like Steven Moffat for the things these two are going to have to go through. (And now you've been warned of the difficulties ahead... *evil laugh*)**

 **So, I feel like I have to explain the lack of Adam... when I was originally writing this chapter, I meant for Adam to be there, but it just wasn't flowing right. Then came the idea of having it be only the Doctor and the Guardian, and their future daughter be the one forced to tell the Editor about them. That's when everything began to feel right, and so that's what you see.**

Review Notes:

WonderfulWhovian: Glad you like it so far. To answer your critique, I was aware of the "Theta Sigma" thing, despite having only seen a couple of episodes from the classic series. However, from everything I have been able to find, "Theta Sigma" is considered nickname that he picked up while in the Academy, and is not his real name. Plus, I highly doubt that the writers would have done the whole "first question" saga thing and encouraged the "name of the Doctor will be revealed" hype towards the end of Series 7 if his name had previously been revealed. I am of the opinion that his name never will be revealed or, if there ever is a last episode, that it will be revealed on the very last episode. When you've got a show called "doctor who?", it makes no sense to answer the very question you asked. To paraphrase 10, "takes all the fun and mystery out of everything".

time-twilight: Thank you for your reviews! I can say that Rose will not fall in love with the Doctor, but she will still play a very large part in the complications to come. This is not the last the Gallifreyans will hear from her. As the question of "Father's Day", even if Rose had remained on the TARDIS, I could not imagine the Guardian letting the Doctor even land on the same _day_ as Rose's dad's death, let alone actually go there. The Guardian is suspicious by nature, and I can't see her not realizing what Rose would do. And as for who is possessed by the Heart of the TARDIS... well, we'll just have to see...

And, since this fic has reached over a thousand views, over twenty favorites and follows, and fifteen reviews, I'm going to give you a tiny sneak peak into what is to come next week!

 _"Who the hell are you?" The man demanded, grabbing a sonic blaster out of a holster under the cramped piloting console._

 _The Guardian stood. "Captain Jack Harkness. Time Agent."_

 _"Former Time Agent," Jack snapped back, looking slightly surprised that she had identified him, and fired._


	8. Chapter 8: The Empty Child

**I don't own Doctor Who, or any characters except the Guardian.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian was awoken by a terrible shaking. She felt the other side of the bed, noting that it was empty. Now, that was impressive. Somehow, the Doctor had gotten out of their room without waking her.

The room shook again, making the Guardian roll towards the center of the bed to avoid falling off.

What in Rassilon's name was her husband doing?

If the other rooms in the TARDIS were shaking, then the console room must be a mess. She got up and made her way to the rocking and shaking console room, grabbing the railing to keep herself steady. _"What's the emergency?"_ She asked the Doctor teasingly.

 _"_ _It's mauve!"_ He ran around the console frantically pushing buttons.

The Guardian moved over to the monitor and saw that they were following a small spaceship. She began rapidly typing commands into the computer. In fifteen seconds, she had hacked into the ship's flight computer.

 _"_ _Oh, you're brilliant!"_ The Doctor kissed her, then took her place.

 _"_ _What are you doing to my brilliant work?"_

 _"Slaving the TARDIS to it. Where it goes, we go."_

She crossed her arms. _"And you think that's safe?"_

 _"Totally."_

As if to protest the Doctor's treatment of her, the TARDIS's console began sparking and exploding.

 _"_ _Okay, reasonably,"_ the Doctor corrected him. _"Should have said "reasonably" there—No! No!"_

The Guardian shoved him aside, noting that the ship was jumping time tracks. She typed in more commands, trying to keep the ship—whatever it was—from crash-landing on the centre of London in thirty seconds.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The TARDIS landed with a jolt. The Guardian straightened and kissed the Doctor. "I'll be right back."

She hurried down the corridor to their bedroom, needing to fix her hair and pull on more appropriate clothing, since the TARDIS had landed on Earth in the 1940s. While no one in the 21st century or later would blink at her camisole top and lounge pants, people from the 1940s would be scandalized.

Five minutes later, she joined the Doctor outside the TARDIS, dressed in her typical demin trousers, green shirt, and leather jacket and combat boots. The TARDIS had materialized in a dark alleyway.

"Don't humans use red as the color for danger?" She asked.

The Doctor chuckled, putting his arm around her waist. "Yes. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing." He looked around and sighed. "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?"

"About five days. Or do you just pop in to pick up milk then?" This regeneration seemed to be quite fond of the Earth food, but… "All of the species in the Universe and it has to come out of a cow?"

He nodded sympathetically, then looked around—as if he could see anything in the dark. "It must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway."

"But it fell a month ago." The Guardian looked around also, feeling like something was watching them. "Let's slip back inside and run a scan for alien tech."

"Guardian, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. Let's just ask." He waved the psychic paper at her.

She slipped free of his arm. "You can run off and start asking strangers stupid questions, but I'm going to run a scan. I would prefer to know what I was getting into." She smirked. "Besides, I think you would appreciate the lack of distraction."

The Doctor glared at her weakly, well aware that more than half of the scrapes they had gotten into in the last three weeks were because he had been distracted by her. "Suit yourself."

The Guardian kissed him and walked back into the TARDIS. She ran the scan, which immediately picked up that there was a Chula warship tethered to Big Ben.

She shook her head. What was it with spaceships and Big Ben?

This ship had a much more complicated computer, but she still managed to hack into it and transmat herself on board. She settled into the captain's chair to wait for the ship's owner.

She wasn't disappointed.

Five minutes later, a dark-haired man transmatted on board. When he turned, the Guardian's eyes widened.

She knew this man.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Using the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor broke into a nightclub through the back door. He made his way through the halls, following the sound of saxophone to a posh club. He took a spot just off stage to wait until the singer finished "It Had To Be You."

He smiled, thinking of the Guardian. Indeed, it did have to be her. Even a thousand years ago, it had to be her. He never really believed in the concept of soul mates, but how else could he explain who she, a Lady who had been raised within the strictest traditions on Gallifrey, had ended up as much of a renegade as him? Especially after what her father did to her, one would think she would want nothing to do with renegades.

Yet there she was, and she loved him, faults and all. Just like he did her.

He smirked. Though… he wasn't terribly fond of her habit of pulling a gun on him if he so much as breathed too deeply while they were sleeping, but that was fifteen hundred year-old reflexes in action. He hadn't even been able to get out of their room with incident when the TARDIS had sent him a telepathic signal, alerting him to the ship they had been following.

It seemed that the Guardian could also pull a gun in her sleep. He didn't want to find out how good of a shot she was asleep. Knowing her, she was just as good as she was awake. Fifteen hundred year-old reflexes and all that.

The Doctor glanced up again when he realized there was no music and plenty of clapping. He made his way up to the microphone when the singer stepped away.

"Excuse me, excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention for a mo?"

The clapping died away as everyone looked confused.

"Be very quick," the Doctor promised. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"

Everyone was absolutely silent, but then they began… laughing?

"Sorry, have I said something funny?" The Doctor looked around, absolutely confused. He tried to speak over the near-hysterical laughter. "It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."

The long wail of a siren sounded outside. Everyone stood up, a few taking one last bit of their drink, and walked out of the room.

"Would've landed quite near here," the Doctor continued to try. "With a very loud..."

That's when he saw it. On the back wall, a poster showing a search light and planes, reading 'Hitler will send no warning!'

"...bang."

They had landed in the middle of the Blitz.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Who the hell are you?" The man demanded, grabbing a sonic blaster out of a holster under the cramped piloting console.

The Guardian stood. "Captain Jack Harkness. Time Agent."

"Former Time Agent," Jack snapped back, looking slightly surprised that she identified him, and fired.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor ran back to the TARDIS. "Guardian! Have you done that scan?"

He stopped short, seeing the empty console room. He searched for her in his mind, but she was nowhere in the TARDIS.

 _"_ _Where on Earth has she gone?"_ He muttered to himself. She did this a lot, actually. Just randomly disappeared on him, only to return with some highly valuable piece of information. It seemed that she was taking quite well to her new-found freedom to make her own personal choices. He walked over to the monitor, to see if she had run the scan for alien tech, but an entirely different sound stopped him.

The phone started ringing.

Slowly, he walked to the doors, stepping outside to open the little door that concealed the phone.

"How can you be ringing?" He asked the phone, even more confused than he had been earlier. There had been a logical explanation then, even if he didn't realize it. But now? "What's that about, ringing. What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

He pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He'd just have to scan it.

"Don't answer it." He looked up to see a young woman standing in the alley. She continued, "It's not for you."

The Doctor walked closer. "And how do you know that?"

The young woman—more of a child, really—shook her head a tiny bit. "'Cos I do. And I'm telling you, don't answer it." There was more pleading her voice than threat.

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this: how can it be ringing?" He walked back over to the still-ringing phone. "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not—"

He looked up to see that the girl was gone. He frowned and, after a moment of arguing within himself, picked up the phone.

There was breathing and static on the other end.

"Hello?" He said. "Hello?"

Still nothing.

"This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"

 _"_ _Mummy? Mummy?"~_

The Doctor froze at the child's voice, a note of desperation to it.

"Who is this? Who's speaking?"

 _"_ _Are you my mummy?"~_

"Who is this?"

 _"_ _Mummy?"~_

The Doctor frowned, growing frustrated. Surely a life form that could call a fake phone could have answered a simple question. "How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

 _"_ _Mummy?"~_

The call ended with a dull buzz.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian smirked when Jack's blaster didn't work. She pulled the battery pack out of her pocket. "Weapons factory at Villengard." She sat down again in the pilot's chair of the tiny ship. "So, now that we've gotten that out of the way: what are you doing in London in the middle of the Blitz?"

Jack frowned at her, but lowered the useless blaster. "How about you first tell me who the hell you are, Red?"

The Guardian frowned at the nickname. "No one you know. But I happen to know a friend of yours." Well, 'friend' was not the word the man in the Doctor's memories would have used for her husband, but those had been extenuating circumstances.

"Can I at least get your name?"

The Guardian flashed the psychic paper that she had lifted off the Doctor right after he showed it to her. "Allegra Shannon, Time Agent. But you can call me the Guardian." She leaned forward. "Now, what are you doing here?"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor followed a couple of young boys into the house. He could smell the home cooking, and the family who lived in the house was down in their air raid shelter.

He entered the room as the girl from before was speaking to a young boy. No one noticed him, so he was able to take a seat at the table as quietly as he could. It was fortunate that everyone was focused on the girl. The Guardian would have been much better at this.

The girl handed around a plate of meat that was far too plentiful and nice for this time. "One slice each, and I want to see everyone chewing properly."

The children passed the plate around, each taking one slice and saying "thanks, miss".

"Thanks, miss!" The Doctor grinned, taking a helping of his own when it was passed to him.

The children gasped and stood, all panicking.

"It's all right. Everybody stay where you are!" The girl called calmly over the scuffle.

The Doctor just pretended that nothing was amiss, hoping his lack of concern over their flight would help calm the children. "Good here, innit? Who's got the salt?"

"Back in your seats," the girl insisted. "He shouldn't be here either."

The Doctor watched the children settle down again. They were so young—most of them looked less than ten years old, and the youngest appeared to only be about four years old, yet they were on their own in a city at war. "So, you lot, what's the story?" He asked, tempering his tone so as to not sound confrontational.

"What do you mean?" An older boy asked.

"You're homeless, right? Living rough?" He thought he remembered the girl using that term. Unfortunately, he didn't have the Guardian's eidetic memory.

"Why'd you want to know that?" A younger boy demanded. "Are you a copper?"

"Of course I'm not a copper! What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?"

The children laughed with him, most of the tension now broken. The Doctor glanced at his watch. "I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated," a third boy spoke. "Sent me to a farm."

"So why'd you come back?"

"There was a man there." He glance down spoke louder than his words as to why he came back.

The second boy pointed to the first one, the older one. "Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago."

"Shut up," Ernie snapped, looking down at his food.

The Doctor looked at the children sadly. Did no one have respect for children? As if their younger age made them somehow less than their elders?

Despite their mental bond, he still knew very little of what the Guardian had endured early in her childhood, as she had deleted much of that information. Oh, he knew about the impossible training regimes that cost her many of her earlier lives. And he knew about the beatings when she failed.

But he didn't know whether her fear of movement in the dark was from years of attempts on her life, or whether there had been a darker reason. It wasn't likely, as that sort of abuse was unpardonable on Gallifrey, but so was beating a child to death because they didn't move fast enough through a training course.

It seems that far too many of Gallifrey's laws had been broken to make his wife the person that the High Council wanted.

And who knew what she endured after disappearing from Gallifrey and before appearing in his TARDIS. She didn't, so he didn't.

"Nancy always gets the best food for us!" The second boy interrupted the Doctor's thoughts.

"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" Finally, he knew the girl's name.

"What is?" She glared at him.

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all—as long as the bombs don't get you."

"Something wrong with that?" Nancy snapped.

"Wrong with it?" The Doctor shook his head. "It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical." He _really_ did need to take the Guardian to West End.

"Why'd you follow me?" Nancy asked, shaking her head slowly. "What do you want?"

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call. You seem to be the one to ask."

Nancy looked away for a moment. When she looked back, her expression had hardened. "I did you a favor. I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."

"Great, thanks," the Doctor responded. He turned his attention back to all the children. "And I'm looking for a ginger in a leather jacket. A specific one, mind you—I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. Well, I did, but she's my wife, I'm allowed."

The children laughed, but Nancy stood with a glare and walked over.

"Anybody seen a woman like that? You can't miss her."

Nancy took his plate away.

"What have I done wrong?"

Nancy stormed away. "You took two slices." There was something unconvincing in her voice, though the Doctor wasn't certain what it was. Now he really wished the Guardian was with him. She may not have been the most empathetic person the Doctor met, but she was far better than him at reading people.

"No gingers, no leather jackets. And thing else before you leave?" Nancy was nearly shouting at him.

"Yeah, there is actually. Thanks for asking." The Doctor began digging through his pockets, noting that the psychic paper was gone. So the Guardian had nicked it again. There went his plan to use the psychic paper to show the kids what he was looking for.

"Something I've been looking for," he continued, now searching paper and a pencil. "Wouldn't fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded." He found what he need and began drawing a rough sketch. "Probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would have looked something like this."

He held up a rubbish drawing of the ship, now annoyed that the Guardian had taken his psychic paper. He glanced around, noting curiousity in the children's faces, but no recognition. But Nancy... her expression had frozen.

A knock made everyone jump.

"Mummy? Are you in there, mummy?" A voice called, someone pounding on the window glass.

The Doctor stood and went over to a window, pushing aside the blackout curtain to look outside. There was a little boy, about four years old, standing at the window, wearing a gas mask. Behind him, Nancy frantically demanded to know who was the last one in the front door, while the boy continued to call "mummy", just like on the phone call. The boy made his way to the front door.

The Doctor frowned when Nancy rushed out, and he followed her. She bolted the front door and backed away.

"What's this, then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

"I supposed you'd know," Nancy snapped.

"I do actually. Yes." The Doctor replied quietly, smiling bitterly.

Every male heir of the House of Lungbarrow had been inspired at the Untempered Schism, until him and his brother. It seemed that being one of the ones who ran away was a mark of shame in their House, and everyone on Gallifrey knew it. How many social functions had he been allowed to attend only because of his position, and was then shunned at? His first wife, the Gentle, had been his only true friend growing up.

"It's not exactly a child," Nancy defended, even as the child outside continued to call for his mummy. She suddenly pushed past the Doctor and started calling for the other children to get out the back door.

"Mummy? Mummy?" The little boy continued to call. "Please let me in, mummy. Please let me in, mummy?" He pushed his tiny hand through the letter door.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor noted a fairly fresh scar on the back of the boy's hand.

"Please let me in."

A vase shattered agains the door beneath the boy's hand. He pulled his hand back outside.

"You mustn't let him touch ya!" Nancy shouted when the Doctor looked back at her.

"What happens if he touches me?" He snapped, angry at her harsh disregard for the little boy.

"He'll make you like him."

"And what's he like?"

"I've got to go." Nancy's voice caught, and she started to hurry away.

"Nancy, what's he like?" The Doctor repeated, firmer.

She stopped and turned back. "He's empty," she said sadly.

The telephone began ringing. The Doctor turned to it, then glanced at the door.

"It's him. He can make phones ring, he can. It's like with that police box you saw."

The Doctor looked back at the shadow on the other side of the door. How on Earth could the child do that? After a moment of hesitation, he picked up the phone.

 _~"Are you my mummy?"~_

Before he even had a chance to reply, Nancy pulled the phone out of his hand and hung it up. He looked at her in surprise, but then the radio turned on in the dinning room.

Over the sounds of big band music, the little boy was asking for his mother to let him in. The Doctor fiddled with the dial. A clockwork monkey began moving, playing the same mantra.

"You stay if you want to." Nancy hurried away, out the back door.

The Doctor watched her leave, then glanced back at the front door. The little boy put his hand through the letter door again. The Doctor walked over and crouched just out of reach of the little boy's hand.

"Mummy? Let me in, please, mummy. Please let me in."

"Your mummy isn't here."

The radio turned off, making everything eerily silent.

"Are you my mummy?"

"No mummies here. Nobody here but is chickens." He glanced back at the door Nancy had fled through. "Well, this chicken."

"I'm scared."

"Why are those other children firghtened of you?"

The boy didn't respond. He just continued, "Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs."

The Doctor froze, hearing the distant sounds of bombs exploding. Four years old. The boy he had glimpsed through the window couldn't have been more than four. The same age his youngest great-grandson had been when a Dalek attack murdered him and his mother early in the War. His father had been the first of the Doctor's grandchildren to die, as he had been driven mad with grief over his wife and son's deaths.

No child deserved to be left outside with bombs falling.

"Okay," the Doctor replied, slowly standing. "I'm opening the door now."

The boy pulled his hand out, and the Doctor unbolted the door and opened it.

The boy was gone.

He frowned and looked out onto the deserted street. Where had the boy gone?

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Eidetic memory or not, the Guardian still wasn't sure how Captain Jack Harkness had gotten her on top of the invisible Chula warship with a bottle of champagne. And that was concerning. She should have far more control over the situation.

"If we're going to talk business, I really should find my partner." She moved away from Jack, but he pulled her into his arms, trying to get her to dance.

"Why, is your partner the one who is authorized to negotiate with me?"

She resisted the urge to push him right off his invisible ship just for touching her. The Doctor would hardly approve of her killing the man. "No, I just choose not to do business without him."

"'Him'? Tell me, Red, when you say 'partner', how disappointed should I be?"

The Guardian noticed a slight wobble in his stance—probably from the champagne he was drinking—and slipped out of his arms. "First of all, don't call me 'Red'. Secondly, when I say 'partner', I mean 'husband'. And we're on our honeymoon."

Jack frowned. "I thought the Time Agency didn't allow their people to marry each other."

The Guardian smirked. "Who says our bosses know we're married?" She climbed back down into the ship, Jack following her. "So, what is it that you want to sell?"

Of course, it was going to be the ship that they had followed to this time, but she wanted to know what he claimed it was. Few would have recognized the computer as that of a Chula medical ship.

"It's 1941, the height of the London Blitz..." Jack trailed off when he saw the annoyed look the Guardian gave him. He sighed and typed something into the contraption strapped to his wrist.

A hologram image of the ambulance appeared. "It's a fully armed and equipped Chula warship. Last one in existence, and I know where it is, because I parked it. In two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destory it forever. But if the Agency can name the right price, I can get it back before then. So, what's your offer?"

"Run a scan for alien tech, help me hunt down my husband, and then we can discuss payment." The Guardian leaned against a beam.

"And why would I agree to that?"

The Guardian smirked. "Because you're not a Time Agent anymore, you're a freelancer. You probably stole both of the ships you have hanging around London, so if you don't want my partner and me to turn you in to the Time Agency, you will do as I say." It was a complete lie. Last she heard, the Time Agency wanted her head after she had interferred in one of their operations a few weeks ago.

Jack sighed, believing her. "Fine."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor followed Nancy to a shack beside some railway lines. In there, she hid something, probably food. He smiled as she stood up and saw him.

"How'd you follow me here?"

"I'm good at following me. Got the nose for it."

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."

"My nose has special powers." Well, he couldn't exactly say that he had used the skin cells she'd left on his jacket when she grabbed him to have the TARDIS run a scan for her. could he?

A smile flickered on her face. "Yeah? That's why it's..." She trailed off.

"What?"

Now she was actively trying to hide a smile. "Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing." She insisted, then blurted out. "Do your ears have special powers too?"

Not another one. "What are you trying to say?"

"Goodnight, mister." Nancy started to walk away.

"Nancy."

She stopped, but didn't turn.

"There's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, am I right?"

Nancy turned back to him, her expression curious and confused.

The Doctor clarified. "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"There was a bomb," Nancy responded. "A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

"Take me there."

She laughed weakly, shaking her head. "There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through."

"Try me." If he could find the Guardian, who would no doubt be somewhere near, he should have no troubles.

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"

He nodded. "I really want to know."

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

"And who might that me?"

"The Doctor."

What? Was there another of him running around during the London Blitz?

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor walked through the halls of Albion Hospital yet again, but this time without the Guardian. He came to a dark ward. Every bed had a patient in it, each one wearing a gas mask, just like the boy. Each as still as if they were dead.

Ward after ward. Each one the same.

"You'll find them everywhere." An elderly man in a white coat spoke, walking into the ward. "In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."

"Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

"There's not. Who are you?"

"I'm...er…" He hesitated. "Who are you?" A part of him desperately hoped this man was not a future version of himself. Never mind the paradoxes. He did not want to need a cane.

"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"

The Doctor gave a tiny sigh of relief. "Nancy sent me."

"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes."

"What do you know about it?"

The Doctor followed Doctor Constantine further into the ward. "Nothing. That's why I was asking. What do you know?"

Doctor Constantine stopped and turned back to him. "Only what it's done."

"These people—they were all caught up in the blast?"

"None of them were." Doctor Constantine's chuckle turned into a cough. He sat down in a chair at one of the desks in the middle of the room. The Doctor moved forward, but Constantine help up one hand to keep him back.

"You're very sick."

"Dying, I should think," Constantine corrected. "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"I have my moments."

"Have you examined any of them yet?" When the Doctor shook his head, Constantine warned, "Don't touch the flesh."

"Which one?"

"Any one."

The Doctor walked over to the nearest patient and used his sonic screwdriver to examine the man.

"Conclusions?"

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."

"Examine another one."

The Doctor moved to the next bed and repeated his scan. "This isn't possible."

"Examine another."

Again. "This isn't possible!"

"No." Doctor Constantine agreed.

"They've all got the same injuries." The Doctor walked over to the other side of the room, looking at all the patients with gas masks on and a scar on the back of their hand, just like the boy's.

"Yes."

"Exactly the same."

"Yes."

"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand. How did this happen? How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."

"Dead?"

"At first."

The Doctor froze, remembering the last time he had encountered the undead. He wasn't terribly fond of the idea of having the Gelth return. Fortunately, this didn't seem like the Gelth's work. No blue gaseous creatures so far.

"His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him—who had touched him—had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma."

"No."

"Asphyxiation?"

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity?"

"No."

The Doctor was at a loss. "All right. What was the cause of death?"

"There wasn't one."

Again, the Doctor froze, desperately hoping Constantine's next words weren't going to be what he thought they would be.

"They're not dead."

There it was.

Doctor Constantine hit a waste basket with his walking stick and all the patients sat up. The Doctor backed away to the center of the room as quickly as he could.

"It's all right. They're harmless." Doctor Constantine spoke calmly. "They just... sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just… don't die."

"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" The Doctor asked, growing furious.

The patients laid back down.

"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?"

"Just you? You're the only one here?" How had he not transformed yet? He had to be touching the patients to make them comfortable.

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."

"Yeah. I know the feeling." The Doctor replied quietly, sadly, thinking of the little boy who reminded him so much of his great-grandson.

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."

"Probably too late." And not likely to happen, considering that Albion Hospital was still there in 2006.

"I know. There are isolated cases." He coughed, his whole body stiffening.

The Doctor frowned, concerned.

"...Isolated cases breaking out all over London." Doctor Constantine was forcing the words out, but no longer coughing.

The Doctor moved closer.

"Stay back. Stay back!"

He stopped.

"Listen to me. Top floor. Room 802. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash sight. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?"

"It was her brother."

So that was why the boy was following her.

"She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might—m—m—" Constantine grabbed his neck, trying to fight off the transformation. "Mum..my."

The Doctor took a couple of steps back.

"Are...you...my...mum-my?"

The Doctor watched sadly as Doctor Constantine's face morphed into a gas mask, just like all the others. Once the transformation was complete, Constantine slumped against the desk, as still as the patients in the beds.

Behind him, the Doctor heard a distant but vaguely familiar voice calling, "Hello?"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Shush, idiot." The Guardian hissed at Captain Jack. A moment later, the Doctor hurried out of a door at the end of the hall. His face mirrored the shock that the Guardian sensed in his thoughts.

 _'He doesn't know who you are, Eltanin._ _S_ _ome sort of memory wipe. He thinks we're Time Agents.'_

"Good evening," Jack offered the Doctor his hand.

The Doctor shook off his shock to accept the handshake.

"Jack Harkness. It's a real pleasure to meet you, Dr. Shannon."

The Guardian smirked when the Doctor glanced at her questioningly. Jack walked past them, into the ward.

 _'Don't you ever get tired of introducing yourself as 'John Smith'?'_

 _'Nine centuries in, Amadahy. I'm coping.'_

He switched to speaking aloud. "Where've you been with my psychic paper?"

The Guardian rolled her eyes and pulled the psychic paper out of one of her pockets. "No questions of where I've been with your wife?" She teased.

The Doctor grinned. "Alright, where have you been?"

"Well, I found a former Time Agent, who believes that we are current Time Agents, and he's trying to con us. Although, you could learn a little from him about camouflaging your ship. His is invisible and tethered to Big Ben."

"So how'd you find it?" He pulled her to himself, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Scan for alien tech." She smirked up at him and laid her hands on his chest.

"You weren't kidding when you said you were on your honeymoon." They both looked over to see that Jack had poked his head through the door. "Care to explain?" He gestured inside the ward.

The Doctor released the Guardian, but took her hand, and they walked into the ward. While Jack nattered on about the impossibility of the patients, the Doctor explained everything to her telepathically.

When he had finished, he turned back to Jack. "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"

"What?" Jack stopped.

"An ambulance." The Guardian replied, leaning slightly back, against the Doctor's chest.

"How do you know that?" Jack asked, now nervous.

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "Please. I hacked into the ship's computer system. It wasn't that hard to find out it was an ambulance."

"What does it matter?" Jack snapped. "It's got nothing to do with this."

"This started at the bomb site." The Doctor was almost yelling. The Guardian straightened and moved aside, allowing him to walk towards Jack. "It's got everything to do with it."

"Fine!" Jack pulled up the hologram on the device on his wrist. "Yes, it's an ambulance. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell." He turned off the hologram. "I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle—love the retro look, by the way, nice panels—threw you the bait."

The Doctor turned back to the Guardian. "You were right. He's a con artist now."

"Well, you're clearly not Time Agents." Jack responded.

"Nope," the Guardian joined the two men. She wrapped her arms around the Doctor's arm, resting her cheek on his shoulder to calm him down. "We're just some more freelancers. Also on the run from the Time Agency."

Jack looked slightly surprised, then shook his head. "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

"Oh, really?" The Guardian lifted one eyebrow. "Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot."

"How?" Jack asked, clearly frustrated.

"Some kind of virus is converting human beings into these things," the Doctor responded angrily. The Guardian released him so he could pace. "But why? What's the point?"

Suddenly, all the patients sat up, crying "mummy".

"Doctor," Jack said. "What the hell is happening?"

"I don't know."

The patients began to stand up.

"Guardian, don't let them touch you—you'll become like them."

The Guardian nodded once. "Alright." She pulled out a gun and aimed it at the nearest patient.

Her hands shook for the first time in fourteen hundred years.

"Mummy? Mummy?" The patients repeated their mantra. "Help me, mummy."

With a muffled cry, the Guardian lowered her weapon. _'I can't do it, Eltanin. They are too much like children.'_

The Doctor nodded. He knew the promise that she made when she took on the name 'Guardian'—never hurt a child. Not like she had been hurt. And to shoot them while they cried "mummy"?

How many times had she longed for her mother to be alive as her instructors beat her mercilessly? Cried for her in the dark?

The patients cornered them against a wall, never ceasing their mantra.

"Mummy?"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Sorry that this is a couple of days late... I completely forgot to post it.**

 **So... the Doctor has a history with Jack? Hmm...**

 **Next time: Fluff!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Doctor Dances

**I don't own Doctor Who... *sigh*.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The patients were nearly within touching distance when...

"Go to your room!" The Guardian stepped forward, pushing the Doctor behind her.

The patients grew still.

"You know you're not supposed to be out of bed this late." She continued. "Your mum will be very, very cross with you. Now go back to your room!"

The patients hung their heads like scolded children and shuffled away. Each quietly went back to its own bed.

"I'm really glad that worked," the Doctor grinned. He kissed her. "Those would have been terrible last words."

The Guardian laughed. "I was reasonably certain it would work. It worked every time I found a Lord President's children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren out of their rooms at night."

 _'And yours were always the worst, Eltanin.'_ she added telepathically, with a slightly reproachful look. No doubt his grandchildren and great-grandchildren had inherited that particular trait from him.

He smiled sadly, making the Guardian regret her words a little. So he had been thinking about his family lately too. It made sense. She and Gaiana had been as good a friends as the High Council had allowed. The woman had been one of the few people who knew about their relationship, and she had been the one who encouraged the Guardian to ignore the High Council's threats.

Gaiana would have been so happy that they were married now.

The Doctor moved to look over the now-peaceful patients again.

"So how was your con supposed to work?" She asked Jack.

He shrugged. "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty-percent up front—oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah. Perfect." The Doctor replied angrily.

The Guardian walked over to him and pulled his forehead down to rest against hers. _'Eltanin, it is not your fault that Jack turned out the way he did. It was his choice.'_

 _'And it was my choice to abandon him when I did. No wonder he hated me last time I met him.'_

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners," Jack called. "Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, though. But you've got to set your alarm for volcano day!" He laughed.

The Doctor pulled away from the Guardian to glare at Jack.

Jack's laugh quieted and he smiled uncomfortably. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter," Jack insisted. "It was empty."

The Doctor glared at him and walked for the door. "Guardian, we're going upstairs."

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living." Jack called after them. "I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me: I had nothing to do with it."

The Doctor stopped at the doors and turned back. "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."

A siren sounded, making the three of them look up.

"All clear." Jack breathed.

"I wish," the Doctor snapped and threw open the door.

The Guardian hurried after the Doctor, Jack running after them. The Doctor led them up several flights of stairs, to a secure metal door.

"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken. You got a blaster?" He looked at Jack.

"Sure." Jack pulled his blaster with its once-again-replaced battery out of his coat and disintegrated the lock. He pulled the door open with a flourish.

"Sonic blaster, fifty-first century. Weapons Factories of Villengard?" The Doctor took the blaster from Jack.

"You've been to the factories?"

"Once." He looked over the weapon.

"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

"Like I said, 'once'." He put the blaster back in Jack's coat.

The Guardian smirked at Jack's shock.

"There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." The Doctor walked into the room.

Jack turned to the Guardian, clearly wondering if the Doctor was serious.

She nodded. "I know. I was quite cross when he told me about that one."

They walked in just as the Doctor turned on a light, revealing a destroyed room. Filing cabinets were emptied, an observation window was broken, chairs were overturned. Electronic equipment and papers lay strewn about the floor.

"What do you think?" The Doctor asked them, pulling the Guardian to him and slipping his arm around her waist.

"Something got out of here." Jack answered.

"Something powerful and angry—no." The Guardian stepped away from the Doctor. "Desperate. Lost." She walked into the second room, one with a child-sized bed in the corner. Sheets of a child's drawings filled the walls and lay scattered about the floor.

"A child?" Jack asked, following her into the room. "Suppose that explains 'mummy'."

The Doctor turned on a tape recording as the Guardian moved closer to examine the drawings. All of them were simply drawn pictures of a woman. A mother.

Meanwhile, on the tape, a man tried to ask the child questions, but the child only responded with 'are you my mummy'. The Guardian's hearts broke as she heard the child cry "I want my mummy". She focused on the drawings to hide her tears from the two men, ashamed of the display of emotion.

 _"Do you want to be thought of as weak?" Her instructor demanded._

 _The nine-year-old girl shook her head._

 _"Then control those tears. Emotions are a weakness."_

 _When she didn't stop crying immediately, the Time Lord struck her hard enough that she fell to the floor. Her knee crackled against the stone floor. The girl couldn't control the scream of pain that escaped her lips as she held her knee. Even at nine, she knew the feeling of a shattered knee all too well._

 _Her cry earned her another blow, one that forced her completely to the floor. She barely kept her head from hitting the stones._

 _"Never show pain."_

"Always 'are you my mummy'." Jack observed, mercifully jerking her back the present.

The Guardian cleared her throat, feeling the need to cry pass, along with the unpleasant memory. "He doesn't know. Doctor, this time period—an unmarried woman would feel the need to hide the fact that she had a child, right?"

The Doctor nodded slowly, staring ahead. He wasn't even looking at her.

The Guardian closed her eyes, focusing. It wasn't hard to pick up the Doctor's stray thoughts. He wasn't guarding them at all.

An image of Sigma, his youngest grandson, appeared in her mind. Her eyes flew open. Sigma's mother had been her elder sister's youngest daughter. As family, she had been allowed to attend that funeral without anyone protesting. It had been the first time she saw her father in centuries.

They hadn't even spoken.

"Doctor?" Jack spoke. "Guardian?"

"Can you sense it?" The Doctor asked.

"Sense what?" Jack responded.

"Coming out of the walls! Can you feel it?" The Doctor paced around the small room.

Jack didn't respond.

The Doctor stopped and glared at him. "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in them?"

"Doctor!" The Guardian said, pulling his attention to her. "I can feel it. Can't miss it, in fact." She moved over to stand in front of him, taking his hands.

Just then, she noticed another sound that she couldn't miss.

"There are these children living rough 'round the bomb sites. They come out during air raids looking for food."

"Mummy, please?"

The Guardian stiffened. "Doctor!" She called again, forcing herself to not show her panic. Zombies, Slitheen—she could handle them. But a child? And one that she couldn't even touch? "Doctor, it's afraid. Terribly afraid and even more powerful. It's got the power of a god, and you just sent it to it's _room_."

The Doctor froze as he realized what she was getting at. As he heard what she also did.

The tape had run out, but the child was still speaking.

"I sent it to its room. This is its room." He spun around to see the child standing there, between them and the door.

The Guardian stepped forward to stand beside him.

"Okay, on my signal, make for the door." Jack's voice was low.

"Mummy?"

"Now!" Jack shouted, pulling out… not his blaster, but a banana.

The Doctor grinned and pulled the actual blaster out of the Guardian's jacket. He aimed it at the wall, disintegrating a square of it. "Go now! Don't drop the banana!"

Jack ran through the opening. "Why not?!"

"Good source of potassium!"

One glare from the Guardian and the Doctor followed Jack through. She came after him.

"Give me that!" Jack took the blaster back and fired it at the wall again, repairing the hole just as the child came into view.

They all breathed sighs of relief.

"Digital rewind." Jack explained. He tossed the banana back to the Doctor. "Nice switch."

"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate." The Doctor responded smugly.

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"

"Much to my annoyance." The Guardian confirmed.

"Banana's are good!"

A blow from the other side dented the wall, making them all jump.

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled as a second blow actually broke partially through the plaster.

They ran down the hall, but a set of ward doors opened and patients came spilling out. They ran back in the direction they had come from, only to be cut off by more patients.

"It's keeping us here till it can get at us." The Doctor explained, seeing that they had ended up right where they started.

"It's controlling them?"

"It _is_ them. It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disruptor. Doc, what you got?"

The Guardian pulled out her tranquilizer gun and fired a few rounds at the patients.

Nothing happened.

Apparently, this was just like the Gelth's corpses. Nothing can kill or harm what is already dead. "Well, Doctor?" She smirked a little.

He pulled out the sonic screwdriver. "I've got a sonic… er… oh, never mind."

"What?" Jack asked.

The trio positioned themselves so that they were each facing a threat, the two men facing away from each other.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that!"

The Guardian rolled her eyes.

"Disruptor? Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonicked up!"

"A sonic what?"

"Screwdriver!" The Doctor turned back to Jack, holding the sonic up.

Jack turned to him just as the child broke through the wall.

The Guardian rolled her eyes again. "Gentlemen, watch out!" She grabbed the blaster out of Jack's hands and pointed it at the floor.

They fell through the hole, the Guardian rolling to her knees as soon as she fell. She used the blaster to repair the hole.

"Could've used a warning." The Doctor groaned.

"I'll remember that the next time I save your life." The Guardian stood, glancing around the dark room. She immediately noticed the filled beds.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?"

"I do." The Doctor defended.

"Doctor..."

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?"

"What? You're never been bored?"

"Doctor." the Guardian tried again.

"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up? And look, it can do this!" He pointed the screwdriver at the lights and turned them on.

"Doctor!"

The ward's patients sat up in their beds, then started to get up.

"Door!" Jack yelled. The Doctor grabbed the Guardian's hand and dragged her after Jack.

The blaster didn't work—the batteries having run low—so the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the door. It led to a storeroom.

The Doctor re-sonicked the door behind them. "Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door?" Jack shouted. "The wall didn't stop it!"

The Guardian motioned for quiet. "It's got to find us first." She glared at him.

"Come one, we're not done yet." The Doctor paced. "Assets, assets."

"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves."

The Doctor jumped up to look out the window. "Window."

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories." The Guardian informed him. "I could do it, but I wouldn't be able to make it back up here in time to rescue you two."

"And no other exits." Jack sat down in a wheelchair in a corner. "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" He chuckled.

"Then we just have to figure out what is going on here." The Guardian replied. "Doctor, what were you saying just before the child found us? About the children living around the bomb sites?"

The Doctor nodded slowly. "Suppose they were there when the ambulance crashed?"

"It was harmless!"

"Yes, you keep saying 'harmless'." The Guardian replied, picking up the Doctor's train of thought. "Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"How?" Jack nearly snapped.

The Guardian's eyes widened as she remembered what sort of medical tech the Chulas used. "Oh!"

She turned to Jack, only to see that he had disappeared. "Jack Harkness?" She sighed in frustration. "I'm going to give him a piece of my mind when he gets back."

"As long as that is the only thing that you plan on giving him," the Doctor muttered. He pulled her to himself. "So how come you're so certain that he's coming back?"

She smirked and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Because he can hear us right now, so he knows that if he abandons us to die, I will hunt him down and make certain that he regrets it."

The radio on a shelf came to life. _~"Thanks for the warning, Red."~_

"Where are you?" The Doctor demanded, releasing the Guardian to investigate the radio. The wires were all cut, so there was no way it could have worked.

 _~"I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you, but it's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm still not sure how the Guardian got on board."~_

"I hacked into the computer and overrode the security protocols." She replied. "But I did that from our ship's computer. It won't help you right now."

"How're you speaking to us?" The Doctor asked.

 _~"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."~_

"Now, there's a coincidence."

 _~"What is?"~_

"The child can Om-Com, too."

The Guardian's eyes widened. "Doctor..."

 _~"And I can hear you."~_ The child's voice called, sing-song. _~"Coming to find you..."~_

"Jack, can you block the signal?" The Guardian asked.

 _~"Yeah. It's the least I can do."~_

The child spoke again. _~"Coming to find you, mummy."~_

The mellow strains of a soft jazz tune covered the child's voice. The Guardian smiled, taking the seat that Jack had vacated. She sat a little harder than she meant to.

"You alright?"

She nodded. "Just tired. Guess I finally found my limit. Transmatting myself several miles, running through corridors, dropping through floors, and dealing with the psychic residue left in the child's room, all on shockingly little sleep." She shot him a look blaming him for her lack of sleep.

He blushed a little and moved over to the window.

The Guardian tried to rest for several minutes, but the ever-present buzz of the sonic screwdriver made it impossible for her to relax. She stood and walked over to her husband.

"Darling, the concrete resonation is never going to work. You don't have five centuries. And since you insist on disturbing me, we might as well use this time productively—like for me to teach you how to dance."

"I can dance!" The infernal buzzing stopped.

She snorted. "I have yet to meet an incarnation of yours who doesn't have two left feet."

"We have been married a grand total of three weeks. I think I have more than amply proved my _dancing_ abilities."

The Guardian rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Well, now it's time to teach you the form of dancing that people usually don't mind you doing in public."

She pushed herself between him and the wall and took the sonic screwdriver right out of his hands, slipping it into an inside pocket of her jacket. Her smile turned into a smirk as she noticed the Doctor's gaze following her action. With one hand on his chest, she lightly shoved him back into the middle of the room.

"Now, remember. Your hands go here—" she placed one of his hands on her waist. "And here." She took his other hand in hers, and rested her free hand on the arm that was around her waist. "And they don't wander. Especially when you're dancing with someone other than me." She frowned teasingly at him. "And try not to step on my feet. With your luck, we're going to need to run later, and I'm rather not run on bruised feet."

She tried showing him how to dance to the music, but he failed miserably. Only her very fast reflexes kept her feet from being trod on.

After a few minutes they slipped into simply swaying with the music, her head resting on his chest, his face buried in her hair. Her hands were on his shoulders and his arms were around her waist. She smiled at the soft, steady sound of his twin hearts. There was a sound that she could rest to, and enjoyed falling asleep to every night.

She had spent nearly her entire life being the one who was expected to keep everyone safe. Now, for the first time, she had someone to protect her from the nightmares in the dark.

 _'You make me feel safe, Eltanin.'_ She whispered telepathically.

He kissed the spot where her neck joined her shoulder. _'I'm glad, Amadahy.'_

She knew he understood what that meant, that she actually trusted him to keep her safe, something that she had never given to anyone else before.

"You two are so sweet."

Jack's voice broke in on the peaceful moment. The two Gallifreyans looked up, only now noticing that they were in Jack's ship.

"You know, most people notice when they've been teleported. I had enough time to put the security protocols back in place before I said anything."

"This is a Chula ship," the Doctor noted, releasing the Guardian. Now that they were no longer alone, it seemed that he was just as uncomfortable with their intimate embrace as she was. Even though Jack had no doubt seen far more intimate gestures, being so openly affectionate with an audience didn't feel right. They'd both lived with Gallifreyan propriety for too long.

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."

"Does it have nanogenes?" The Guardian asked.

Jack gave her a surprised look. "Yeah..."

The Doctor snapped his fingers, and his hand was surrounded by a flurry of glowing golden flecks. "Burnt my hand on the console when we landed," he explained. The glow disappeared and he held up his hand. "See? All better."

He looked up at the Guardian, his eyes widening in understanding. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor led the Guardian up to the bomb site. Guards patrolled inside the barbed wire.

"Hey, they've got Algy on duty," Jack noted. "It must be important."

The Guardian noticed something in Jack's tone. "I'm waiting for you to volunteer to distract the guard."

"You know me well." Jack winked at her and headed towards the site. "Don't wait up."

The Guardian looked at the Doctor. "Fifty-first century?"

"Fifty-first century."

They watched Jack approach the captain.

 _'Eltanin, he told me that the Time Agency stole two years of his memories. You must have met him during those two years.'_ She sighed. _'But he could get them back. Maybe he could remember meeting you the first time again.'_

The Doctor shook his head. _'Then I hope he doesn't. The day he met me was the worst day of his life, and he hated me for it. Right now, I'm getting a second chance with… the son of an old friend.'_

"Guardian! Doctor!"

They ran over at Jack's call, just in time to see the guard transform into another gas mask creature.

"Stay back!" The Guardian yelled.

Jack gestured to the other guards who had come to help. "You men, stay away!"

The Gallifreyans reached the unconscious form of the guard. "The effect's becoming air-borne, accelerating."

The air raid sirens started up.

"Here they come again." Jack muttered.

"Never mind that," the Doctor replied. "If the contaminant's airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?"

"The human race." The Guardian turned around. "Does anyone else hear singing?"

They followed the singing to the site's headquarters.

"I'll handle this. You go check out the ship." The Guardian pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her jacket pocket to remind the Doctor that she had it and slipped inside the door.

A young woman was singing to another gas mask creature. This one was asleep with its head on the table, which the young woman was handcuffed to.

"Keep singing," the Guardian whispered.

"Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top..."

The Guardian slipped over and sonicked the handcuffs unlocked. The two women hurried out of the building and across the site. Lights flickered on around a large object covered in a tarpaulin.

"Who are you?" The girl asked.

"The Guardian. You?"

"Nancy."

"So it was your brother who died here?"

Something flickered in Nancy's expression as she nodded.

They joined the Doctor and Jack just as Jack spoke. "You see? Just an ambulance."

"That's an ambulance?" Nancy spoke, gesturing to the now-uncovered ship.

"From another world." The Guardian moved around the ship to the control panel. "Someone has been trying to get in."

"Of course they have." The Doctor responded. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon."

"What are you doing?" The Guardian snapped, when Jack pushed in between her and the control panel.

He started keying in the access codes. "The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." He pressed another key.

The panel sparked and an alarm sounded.

"Idiot!" The Guardian shoved Jack away.

"That didn't happen the last time!"

"It hadn't crashed last time!" The Guardian began keying in override codes. After a tense minute, the alarm stopped.

Jack sighed with relief. "That was close."

"No, no, it wasn't." The Doctor moved to look at the hospital. "The Guardian just stopped it from exploding. The alarm still went out. The soldiers are coming."

"Jack, secure the gates!" The Guardian ordered.

He ran over, not even questioning. The Weapon could do that. She tried to force the Weapon down as she turned to Nancy. "How'd you get in?"

"Cut the wire."

"Show the Doctor." She passed him the sonic screwdriver and turned back to the control panel.

"Guardian!" The Doctor cried.

"I need to open this!" She looked up at him. "If I'm right about what is causing this, then our only hope to saving the world could be in here."

There was a moment of hesitation, then he nodded and followed Nancy to the fence.

Jack had returned from securing the gates by the time the Guardian got the ambulance open. She saw faint golden sparkles here and there as the rest of the nanogenes escaped.

"See? It's empty." He said.

"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" The Doctor and Nancy walked back. "Bandages? Cough drops?"

"It wasn't empty, Jack. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, god." The Captain looked sick.

"Getting it now?" The Guardian responded. "When the ship crashed, the some of the nanogenes escaped. Probably about a billion of them, ready to do what they were programmed to do—heal the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask. And they bring him back to life."

The Doctor took over. "Because what's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop."

His voice turned darker, angrier. The Guardian had only met the Warrior a few times, but right now, her husband was the very image of him. "They won't ever, ever stop! The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know!" Jack defended.

The Doctor glared at Jack for a long time.

"Guardian! Doctor!" Nancy shouted. She pointed down the way, where the gas-mask creatures were gathering.

"Wait," Jack said. "Guardian, you said 'the soldiers are coming'. But they aren't soldiers!"

"They are now, Jack. Battle-field nanogenes get you ready for the front lines. That's why the child is so strong, and why he can Om-Com. He's a fully equipped Chula warrior. Four years old, and he has all that weapons tech _and_ an army at his disposal. What child wouldn't tear the world apart to save their mother?"

She blinked away a couple of tears. She had been five when her mother died. If she could have done then what this child could… there would have been no Gallifrey left to enter the Time War.

"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked, looking at the people who surrounded the barbed wire.

The Doctor stood. "Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?" Jack asked.

"Jamie," Nancy snapped.

"What?"

She glared at him. "Not 'the child'. His name is Jamie."

"Doctor, that bomb falls any second."

"What's the matter, Captain?" The Doctor snapped. "A bit too close to the volcano for you?"

"He just a little boy," Nancy said.

The Guardian walked over. "I know."

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy." She was nearly sobbing now.

The Guardian frowned, thinking. Once again, there was that something in Nancy's voice. The Guardian stepped a tiny bit closer and looked at Nancy better. Her own words came back to her, the ones from when they were in Jamie's room. About single mothers in this time period.

What better way to hide?

"It's my fault." Nancy started crying.

"No," the Doctor replied.

"It is. It's all my fault."

"How can it be your—"

He was cut off as the soldiers began calling, "Mummy!" He spun around, looking at them. Then he looked at the Guardian.

The sounds of bombs dropping drew closer.

"Doctor, that bomb! We've got seconds, and I don't have enough time to override the protocols to teleport you guys out."

"So, it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do."

The Guardian glanced up as Jack vanished, then she turned back to Nancy. Watching the girl stare at all the people, tearing running down her face…

It broke the Guardian's hearts, and brought back memories and thoughts that she had kept buried for twelve hundred years. "Nancy, he's not your brother; he's your son."

The girl flinched and hid her face in her hands.

"You were a single mother in a time that despised such things. So you hid, you lied. Even to him." The Guardian blinked. "I understand, Nancy."

"How could you?" She snapped.

"Because I made the same decision."

She glanced over to see the Doctor's shocked expression. She had forced herself to forget, so he hadn't seen that during their bonding. He had never seen the little girl that she had been forced to give up.

"I gave birth to a little girl, so long ago. But I couldn't keep her. In my culture, such a thing was even more taboo than here. I thought I loved her father, but he didn't love me, and he abandoned us."

Nancy started crying even harder, hearing an echoing of her own story.

"I gave her to my sister to raise. No one ever knew the truth except me and my sister and her husband." And a few members of the High Council. What a death she had been given for that rebellion.

But as for her daughter… as painful as it had been, she had cut off the bond that naturally formed between a mother and her child, and wiped her daughter's memory so the tiny girl would never know the truth—that her father hadn't wanted them and her mother couldn't keep her. Her sister and brother-in-law claimed that her parents were friends who had died.

The gate flew open, the chains snapping. The child called, "Are you my mummy?"

The Guardian put her hands on Nancy's shoulders, making her turn and face her. "Nancy, my daughter died without ever knowing the truth, that her aunt was really her mother. Don't do that to Jamie."

"Are you my mummy?"

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy," the Doctor said. "He's never going to stop."

"Mummy?"

"Tell him, Nancy. The future of the human race is in your hands." The Guardian gave the girl a gentle push in the direction of the boy. She stepped over to the Doctor's side, and he wrapped his arm around her.

Slowly, Nancy walked towards her son, as the little boy repeated, "are you my mummy?"

Nancy took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, I am your mummy."

"Mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

Nancy knelt down in the dirt and gravel. "I'm here," she whispered.

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes."

"Are you my mummy?"

"He doesn't understand," the Doctor whispered in dismay. "There's not enough of him left."

"I am your mummy." Nancy spoke with confidence, surprising the Gallifreyans. "I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." Shaking her head, she pulled her son into her arms.

A cloud of naongenes surrounded them.

"Oh, please," the Guardian breathed. "Please..."

The Doctor's arm around her waist tightened. "Come on, you clever little nanogenes! Figure it out! The mother—she's the mother. That's got to be enough information!"

"Figure it out..." The Guardian begged.

Jamie released Nancy, and she fell to the ground.

The Doctor and the Guardian hurried over.

"Oh, come on." The Doctor begged as they ran. "Give me a day like this. Give me this one."

The Guardian removed Jamie's gas-mask, revealing a perfectly healthy four-year-old boy.

Laughing, the Doctor picked Jamie up. "Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music—you're going to love it!" He pulled the little boy into a hug, while the Guardian hugged Nancy.

"What happened?" Nancy asked, tears falling down her cheeks.

"The nanogenes recognized your DNA in his—the parent DNA." The Guardian explained. "You changed them, Nancy."

The Doctor laughed again and gave Nancy back her son. He slipped his arm back around the Guardian's waist.

The Guardian glanced up to see a bomb hurtling towards them. "Doctor!"

Suddenly, Jack's ship appeared and caught the bomb in a light beam. Jack transmatted in to sit astride the bomb.

"Doctor!"

"Good lad!"

"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis, but it won't last long."

"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

"Then, Doctor, Guardian, good-bye." Jack and the bomb disappeared, then the ship flew away.

"And now..." The Doctor released the Guardian and walked a bit away from them, summoning the nanogenes to himself. "Time to email the upgrade."

He threw the nanogenes at the gas-mask people, who fell to the ground. What took the first group a nanogenes a month to achieve only took seconds for the entire amount to undo. Moments later, the patients started standing up, once again human.

The Doctor ran back over the Guardian, pulling her into a fierce hug. She laughed as he spun her around, her feet lifting off the ground. "Everybody lives, Guardian. Just this once, everybody lives!"

He put her down, gave her a quick kiss, then ran over to an old man in a white coat who was looking around, confused. The Guardian couldn't help but smile as she watched her husband run around like an excited puppy.

"Is it always like this?" Nancy asked. "Living with him?"

The Guardian shook her head. "No. Today is a good day. But it's the good days that make it all worth it."

The two women exchanged smiles just as the Doctor ran back over.

He climbed onto the Chula ship. "Right, you lot!" He shouted. "Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world, and don't forget the welfare state!" He jumped off. "Guardian, could you set this to self-destruct as soon as everybody's clear?"

"Of course, darling." She typed in the codes. "Just sonic it, and you'll have ten seconds to get clear."

"History says there was an explosion here," he explained to Nancy and Jamie. "Who am I to argue with history?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" The Guardian teased.

"Oi!"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Since they had about half an hour before the bomb's stasis completely decayed, the Doctor and the Guardian took a few minutes to organize some things. While the Doctor discussed Nancy and Jamie with Doctor Constantine, the Guardian gave the nanogenes a few last orders, to finish cleaning up the mess and deactivate.

Couldn't have a bunch of nanogenes running around, altering the development of human medicine.

When she finished, she found Nancy waiting for her.

"Where's Jamie?" She asked.

Nancy smiled. "Meeting Doctor Constantine. He wasn't upset or anything. He'll help us. Help me give Jamie the life he should have."

"He'll be amazing, Nancy." The Guardian smiled. She had run back to the alley to fetch the TARDIS, and did a little search through the history books. Apparently, a Doctor James Constantine became a major early researcher into nanotechnology, and he bore a striking resemblance to the little boy they had just saved.

Nancy smiled again and started to walk away, but she stopped. She turned back. "Your daughter..."

The Guardian stiffened.

"What was her name?"

The Guardian sighed. Her sister had insisted on giving the little girl a different name, one that fit the traditions of her husband's family. But she had given her daughter a name too... "Kateri. It means 'pure' in my language, because she truly was the purest thing in my life at the time."

Nancy glanced in the general direction of her son. "I understand. Until you met the Doctor?"

The Guardian smiled. "Yeah. Until I met the Doctor."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Once they returned to the TARDIS, the Guardian insisted on giving the Doctor another dancing lesson—of the socially acceptable sort.

The Guardian landed the TARDIS in Jack's ship while the Doctor started an instrumental version of "It Had To Be You" playing.

"Jack! Are you coming?" The Guardian shouted, as the Doctor tried to follow her through the dance steps.

Jack ran in and looked around.

The Doctor stopped the lesson to address Jack, not wanting to trod on the Guardian's toes anymore. He was already fortunate that she had fast reflexes and a high pain tolerance. "Close the door, will ya? You're ship's going to blow up."

"There will be draft." The Guardian added.

Jack hurried to obey, and the Guardian piloted the TARDIS away from the exploding ship.

"Welcome to the TARDIS," the Doctor said.

"Much bigger on the inside," Jack commented.

"And your stay here is temporary," the Guardian added. "The Doctor and I have only been married three weeks, so we would like to have a bit more time to ourselves before taking anyone else on board."

"So," the Doctor jumped in, joining the Guardian and wrapping his arm around her waist. "Pick any planet, any timezone. It's yours to live in, and we'll probably pop back in sometime in your future and see if you want to join us."

"Okay..." Jack joined them at the console. The Doctor was mildly surprised that it didn't start sparking furiously. It seemed that the old time machine actually liked Jack, which was always a good sign. "I happen to like London. What do you say to the 26th Century?"

"Easy." The Guardian flipped a switch.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

After dropping Jack off, the Guardian made her way to her training room. The Doctor had asked the TARDIS to build it specifically for her, exactly as she wanted it.

She chose a program that would fire harmless, though slightly painful, lasers at her, which she had to dodge. Anything to help her work through the memories that had been brought back up today.

She had been at it for over an hour when the program powered down. She looked over to see the Doctor stepping out of the control room.

 _"I never thought of her as my daughter, Eltanin."_ She answered his unspoken question. _"After I gave her up, I forced myself to think of her as my sister's daughter. It was the only way I could cope."_

It was actually rather ironic. Her daughter had married his grandson. And here they were, married now.

The Doctor knew about the relationship that had given her Kateri—she had never blocked that from him. There really wasn't much to add to what he already knew.

 _"Dance with me, Amadahy?"_

She snorted. _"You still can't dance."_

He grinned. _"Well, you never know. Maybe I've remembered."_

She shook her head, but stepped into his arms. To her surprise, he lead her in a much faster, more energetic dance than the traditional Gallifreyan waltz she had been trying to teach him. And he did it well, without stepping on her feet once.

As a grand finish, he picked her up at the waist and spun her around. She laughed putting her arms around his neck as he set her down again. She kissed him.

 _"Alright,_ _Eltanin,_ _you win. You can dance."_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Okay, I nearly died writing the scene in the storage cupboard. So. Much. Fluff. I have everything plotted out up to 'The Husbands of River Song' (so I'm not kidding when I say that pretty much everything that I change I'm changing for a reason), but I think this point in the Doctor and the Guardian's relationship is my favorite, next to the Guardian and 12's. (*spoilers*)**

 **Confession: I found it a bit strange that the nanogenes took a whole month to do all the damage they did, but then were able to undo it in a few seconds.**

 **Also, I hate to sound like one of those super needy writers who beg for reviews, but I really would love to know what people think of the story, the Guardian, theories about the Doctor's past relationship with Jack, etc.**

 **Next time: It isn't actually an episode from series 1... but series 2? A few familiar faces resurface.**


	10. Chapter 10: School Reunion

**I don't own Doctor Who, only the Guardian.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian walked into the console room just as the Doctor hung up the phone. _"Well?"_ She asked, toweling her wet hair. The Doctor's last attempt to take them to Poosh had landed them in that swamp on Metabelis Four, where they were chased by some odd form of swamp monster. Needless to say, the Guardian was _not_ happy about all the swamp water she had to wash out of her hair.

 _"Rose called,"_ his voice was hard, and it made the Guardian wince. Two months, and he still hadn't forgiven Rose.

 _"And what did she want?"_

 _"Something about UFO sightings and strange happenings at a school in London."_

 _"What is it with aliens and London?"_ The Guardian asked. She tossed her towel to hang on one of the Y-beams.

The Doctor chuckled and shook his head. _"I have no idea, Amadahy."_

 _"So, do you want to investigate?"_

 _"Nope."_

She raised one eyebrow. That was definitely not like her husband. _"Because Rose asked you to?"_

 _"Yep."_ He moved around the console, flipping switches. _"What do you say a trip to see Shakespeare? He's a brilliant one."_

The Guardian followed after him, pulling the lever that was the brakes. _"Mickey told me about the same thing. And I told him we would investigate it."_

" _Later_ ," the Doctor typed something into the monitor and upbeat music began to play. _"We've got a time machine. We have all the time in the Universe."_

He pulled her into his arms and tried to start dancing with the music, but for once the Guardian didn't want to dance. _"No, Eltanin, we're going. I may not like Rose, but Mickey asked for our help."_

The Doctor sighed and released her, walking back to the console. " _Fine_." He knew as well as she did that Mickey wasn't asking lightly. The young man had called a couple of times to see how the Guardian was doing, but he had never asked them to investigate anything, despite a few incidents that they knew UNIT had taken care of.

 _"Next stop: London."_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor walked into the physics laboratory of Deffry Vale School. It had actually been the Guardian's idea to go undercover. At the time, he had thought it was a good idea. But now, looking over the collection of barely interested teenagers, he was starting to wonder if it hadn't been such a great idea after all.

"'Morning, class. Are you all sitting comfortably?"

There wasn't much of a response, just like yesterday. And this was an entirely new class. He hid his grimace by glancing at his notes. "Okay, time to see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"

Only one boy raised his hand. He was also the only one who appeared interested.

"Your name?" The Doctor asked.

"Milo."

"Right then, Milo? What's the answer?"

"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge."

"Correct," the Doctor glanced at his notes again. "I coil up a thin piece of micro wire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this: how do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?"

Once again, Milo's hand was the only one that came up. The previous Guardian's term 'pudding brains' came to mind, but he stopped himself from saying anything other than "Anyone else care to answer?"

No one's bored expression changed. "Go for it, Milo."

"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and voltmeter."

Correct again. The Doctor nodded, actually impressed. So Milo was one of the students getting this school record results.

Time to see what else Milo knew.

"Tell me, Milo, true or false: the greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."

"False." The boy responded back far too confidently and quickly.

Okay, that was a 50-50 chance. "What is non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein." Milo responded just as quickly as before.

Now the Doctor frowned slightly. "What's sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and eighty-three times five?"

"Three hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifteen." Still no hesitation.

That should be impossible.

"How do you travel faster than light?"

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty-six point seven recurring."

The Doctor blinked. Now that _was_ impossible. As much as he hated to admit it, Mickey the Idiot seemed to have been right.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian slammed her tray down on the canteen table and all but collapsed into the chair.

"Having fun?" The Doctor asked her, grinning.

She glared at him before turning her attention to the food, which she ate quickly, not even questioning it. Except for the chips. Those she left on the tray, just like the Doctor had, she noticed.

 _'So?'_ She asked him.

 _'Boy in class this morning had knowledge way beyond planet Earth.'_

 _'As in?'_ She looked around the quiet canteen, spotting Rose making her away towards them with very little subtlety.

 _'He knew how to travel faster than light.'_

The Guardian blinked. That was almost as impossible as her own encounter this morning. _'I—'_

"Two days." Rose's voice interrupted.

The Doctor ignored her, while the Guardian shot her a small glare.

Rose either didn't notice or ignored her. "Two days, we've been here."

"Well, I'm thanking Mickey." The Guardian responded. "I nearly had a student out-hack me this morning."

The Doctor frowned, leaving forward. "What?"

She nodded. Somehow, she had been able to get a spot as an advanced computer sciences teacher, which was amazing considering how closely the school guarded its computers. That itself was suspicious.

"A student displayed technical abilities beyond planet Earth, just like yours." She spoke more to the Doctor, since he actually looked interested. "I challenged him to a hacking battle. He would try to hack into my computer, and I would defend it."

The Doctor started smirking, clearly thinking he knew how this was going to end.

"He nearly won."

The Doctor's grin disappeared. "But that should have been easy for you!"

She _should_ have been able to defend her computer and hack into his at the same time. Instead, a 13-year-old human had nearly beat her at her own area of expertise.

"Sorry, what?" Rose said.

"You missed a spot." The Doctor replied. Those were literally the first words that he had spoken to Rose since they landed.

Rose glanced down at the table she was supposed to be wiping. "You eating those chips?"

The Guardian shook her head. "They taste wrong."

Rose took one off the Doctor's plate and tried it. "I think they're gorgeous! Wish I had school dinners like this."

Just then, the head dinner lady stalked over. "You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting." She snapped at Rose.

"I was just talking to these teachers." Rose faltered. "They don't like the chips."

Which was saying something, especially for the Guardian lately. She was eating practically everything around, including nibbling on a few of the Doctor's odd concoctions in the TARDIS's kitchen. Of course, she knew the reason—or reasons—for that. She could feel their presence in her mind. She hid her small smile. Her world was less empty now.

The head dinner lady turned to them. "The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance." Her attention shifted to Rose. "Now, get back to work."

Rose hurried off, followed by the head lunch lady, just as a black teacher walked over to a nearby table full of students.

"Melissa." The Guardian could hear him as he spoke to a young girl. "You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me, so it's time we moved you up to the top class."

The Guardian looked over at the Doctor. He was closer, so he could hear as well.

 _'That doesn't sound good.'_ He said to her.

 _'No.'_ She looked around the canteen, an unmistakable feeling of being watched striking her.

There. Standing on the balcony above was the headmaster, Mr. Finch. He seemed to be watching the lunchroom with a predatory gaze.

The Guardian tightened her jaw. Whatever Mr. Finch was, he was not going to harm any more of the children in the school.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Cell phone in hand, the Guardian walked into the teacher's lounge. Mickey had just called to tell her what he had found so far—over forty UFO sightings logged by the army three months ago.

The same time that Mr. Finch arrived with twelve new staff, several of whom were now clustered in one area of the lounge.

Even more concerning, Mickey had been on the phone with Rose when Mr. Finch's kitchen staff had come through with several barrels of the chip oil, and it had spilled on one of them. Apparently, there had been a lot of screaming, which the head cook had tried to pass off as normal for the woman in question.

No wonder the chips taste wrong, if that was what its concentrated form could do.

The Guardian joined the Doctor as he stood speaking to one of the history teachers. He smiled and put his arm around her waist, as she did with him. She was glad that they had chosen to join the school's staff as a married couple. At least they could be open about their relationship, unlike the time they had tried to go undercover a month ago, when they were investigating a series of suspicious disappearances in the Dundra system.

Their attempts to pretend at not knowing each other had not gone over well.

Well, she hadn't had any troubles. The Doctor on the other hand….

 _'Oi!'_ He scolded. _'Can I help it if I am obsessed with my wife?'_

 _'Focus.'_ She replied, but smiled as she focused on the history teacher, Parsons.

"Yesterday, I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy—in cubits."

"That is impressive," the Guardian commented. How many people in this time period even knew what a cubit was?

"And this wasn't the first of this kind of thing," the Doctor informed her. "This is all since the new headmaster arrived?"

Parsons nodded. "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teachers you replaced, and that was just plain weird."

"How so?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, it wasn't so strange for the computer sciences teacher, Mrs. Smith. He played the lottery all the time. I mean, we were surprised that he actually won something, but not like the teacher you replaced, Smith."

"How's that more weird?" The Guardian asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight."

The Guardian smiled. "It must have been her night."

Parsons started to reply, but Mr. Finch chose that moment to walk in, followed by a middle-aged woman that the Guardian recognized from the Doctor's memories.

 _'Amadahy, it's—'_

"Excuse me, colleagues," Finch said. "A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith."

The Guardian smiled, feeling the Doctor's excitement. There he was—the man that he had been before she regenerated.

"Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the _Sunday Times_. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak." He chuckled. "Don't spare my blushes."

Finch left, and the Guardian relaxed. Ever since that moment in the canteen, Finch's mere presence was enough to make her tense.

Sarah Jane looked around the room for a moment before walking over to the Doctor and the Guardian. "Hello."

The Doctor was silent, too excited about meeting Sarah Jane Smith again to speak in a civilized manner.

The Guardian smiled, but didn't offer her hand to shake, since it was wrapped around the Doctor's waist. "Hello."

"And you are?"

"Allegra and John Smith."

"Married couple?" Sarah Jane glanced at the wedding and engagement rings that the Guardian wore, though only because the humans would think it strange for her not to be wearing them.

She hated the way rings felt, having far too many memories of being struck by ringed hands to make wearing rings of her own enjoyable, so she had originally refused when the Doctor offered to give her an engagement ring like humans wore. She still took these rings off as soon as she reentered the TARDIS every evening.

"Yes," the Doctor finally said. "Just."

"Congratulations." Sarah Jane smiled. "John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name."

"Common name." The Doctor shrugged.

"He was a very uncommon man." Sarah Jane smiled again, but this one was nostalgic. "Well, it's nice to meet you."

"And you." The Guardian replied.

"So, have you worked here long?"

"Our second day."

"Oh, you're new, then." She dropped her voice a little. "So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." The Doctor grinned.

Sarah Jane shrugged. "Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here."

The Guardian smiled. "No, there's not."

Sarah Jane had to move on then.

"Good for you, Sarah." The Doctor muttered.

 _'I think we should invite her to join us.'_

After a moment, the Doctor slowly began to nod.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

That night, the Guardian watched Sarah Jane break into the school. She followed the woman through the darkened corridors, careful to remain unnoticed. Having traveled with the Doctor, Sarah Jane was far more vigilant than most humans, so the Guardian actually had to _try_ to be more stealthy than already came naturally.

As they neared the storeroom where the Doctor and the Guardian had hidden the TARDIS, both women heard something screech down the hall.

The Guardian frowned. The sound resembled that of a bat, but it was too big. And the tone was wrong.

Sarah Jane opened the storeroom door and walked inside. The Guardian followed her, but leaned back against the door. She watched the woman back away from the TARDIS in shock.

"He's told me a lot about you, Sarah Jane." She spoke just loud enough to be heard.

The woman spun around. "Who are you?"

"I'm known as the Guardian."

"A Time Lady?"

The Guardian nodded, even if that wasn't true in the strictest sense. Few species had actually heard of the Immortals, since they were so rare. To the rest of the Universe, she was a Time Lady, even if her own people had never considered her such.

"So, that man was the Doctor? He's regenerated?" Sarah Jane whispered.

"A half a dozen times since you last met him."

"You're really his wife? Is he happy?" Sarah Jane asked, tears in her eyes.

The Guardian smiled and nodded, thinking of the particular piece of information that she had yet to share with him. "Yes. He is."

She laughed. "I can't believe that he's here. After all these years."

In the distance, they heard a man scream.

"Okay, now I can!"

The two women smiled and ran out of the storeroom, going in the direction the scream had come from.

They met the Doctor and Mickey outside of a cupboard, where the Doctor was berating Mickey for screaming.

"It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended himself.

"Like a little girl?"

The Guardian bent down and looked at the packages on the floor. They were dozens of vacuum-packed rats.

Rose joined them and did the same thing, only she voiced her findings aloud.

"It was dark! I was covered in rats!"

"Doctor, leave him alone."

"Thank you, Dee." Mickey looked over at her as she stood. The young man hadn't been too certain about her when he saw her for the first time, but it seemed that he had finally accepted her as the Guardian.

"Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose asked.

Sarah Jane spoke up. "Well, obviously they use them in biology lessons. They dissect them."

"Who are you?"

The Guardian frowned at the hard tone in Rose's voice. "Rose, this is the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane, Rose is our assistant for _this_ particular adventure."

"He never mentioned her."

The Guardian caught the hurt look in Sarah Jane's eyes. Apparently the woman had missed her emphasis in Rose's temporary state. "Considering that you only traveled with us for a week before the Doctor left you, he hardly would have had time to, especially with your constant nattering." She really was getting sick of this human. "Now can we focus?"

"Yes, thank you, Guardian." The Doctor kissed her.

 _'Thank you for handling Sarah for me.'_

 _"_ Anything for you, darling." The Guardian said, responding to both of his comments.

He turned to the trio of humans. "Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office. I was going to, but then Ricky here had to get scared."

"Mickey," the Guardian and Mickey corrected at the same time.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Hand-in-hand, the Gallifreyans led the way to the headmaster's office. When they reached it, the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the door.

 _'Allow me,_ ' the Guardian put her hand on his shoulder to push him out of the way. She glanced into the office, her eyes widening slightly since no one could see it. Thirteen large, bat-like creatures hung from the ceiling.

She pulled out of the doorway. "I think I know what those rats where for."

"What?" Rose asked.

"Food." She opened the door a bit wider so that the others could look inside.

"No way!" Mickey ran down the hall.

Sarah Jane and Rose followed him, but much slower. The Guardian shut the office door, her and the Doctor both flinching when they heard noises like one of the creatures had woken up. They jogged a little to catch up to Rose and Sarah Jane.

The group found Mickey in the school yard.

"I am not going back in there!" Mickey nearly shouted when he saw them. "No way!"

"Those were teachers?" Rose shook her head.

"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse." The Guardian said.

The Doctor picked the explanation up. "Thirteen. And we have thirteen bats. Come on!"

"What?" Rose exclaimed.

"'Come on'?" Mickey repeated. "You've got to be kidding!"

The Guardian remained silent, her hand slipping to her stomach for just a moment, moving it before anyone noticed. For once, a part of her didn't want to walk right back into danger, especially if one of those creatures had woken up.

"I need the TARDIS to analyze the oil that Rose was told to get. If even she did."

"I got it!" Rose pulled the small jar out of her pocket.

The Guardian took it from her and slipped it in her own jacket pocket, ignoring the teenager's glare.

"I might be able to help you there," Sarah Jane said. "I've got something to show you."

They followed her to a silver car parked in a nearby car park—one that was off the school grounds. Sarah Jane opened the back hatch to reveal a very futuristic metal dog.

"K9!" The Doctor grinned and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, scanning the dog. "What happened to him?" He asked Sarah Jane.

"Oh, one day, he just—nothing." She shrugged. "And I couldn't just get him repaired. It's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro."

The Guardian nodded. "The technology inside of him could rewrite human science. You did the right thing, Sarah."

Sarah Jane smiled at the name the Fourth Doctor used to call her.

"Why does he look so...disco?" Rose asked.

The Guardian turned to her, since clearly the Doctor was back to ignoring the girl. "In the year five thousand, K9 was the latest style. Just wait. Give it ten years and your cell phone will be strange too."

Something moved in the darkness. The Guardian shuddered a tiny bit, and she took a deep breath before looking around. On the roof of the school, she could just make out the form of a human and one of the bat creatures.

She laid a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Darling, there's a chip shop just down the street. We should take K9 there. We're too exposed here."

The Doctor straightened and nodded.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"You look incredible." Sarah said quietly to the Doctor as they sat at a table in the chip shop, K9 on the table between them.

The Doctor didn't look up from the metal dog. "So do you."

A part of him regretted pulling Sarah into this. It had been over thirty years for her since he left her in Croyden, as he thought he had been called to Gallifrey by the Time Lords. He had no regrets about going, even if he had nearly been executed again, because that particular incident had resulted in him becoming the Lord President. And that introduced him to the Guardian.

Speaking of, the Guardian… He looked up to see her waiting at the counter for her order of chips.

"She's beautiful."

He looked over to see Sarah smiling at him.

"How did you meet her?" She asked.

He shrugged. "I became the Lord President to avoid execution. Her job on Gallifrey was to keep the Lord President alive."

Sarah's eyes widened, but she was silent. A minute or so later, she said quietly, "I thought you'd died."

He looked up from K9.

"I waited for you," she continued. "And you didn't come back. And I thought you must have died."

"I nearly did." He replied just as quietly.

"But in the end, everyone else died." The Guardian joined them, sitting beside the Doctor. She took his hand and squeezed it lightly before releasing it.

 _'I can do this for you, Eltanin.'_

 _'Thank you.'_

He focused on K9, but listened to the Guardian explain everything.

"Sarah, our people were at war with the Daleks. A war bigger than you could possibly imagine. In the end, we were the only ones who survived. The two of us and one Dalek."

"But… how?"

"I'm not sure how I did." He felt her shrug. "I just remember waking up in the TARDIS, newly regenerated, my last memory of the War."

"And you?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "I was the one who ended it." He didn't look up.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian watched the devastation form in Sarah Jane's expression. So the woman was able to figure out what that meant for the Doctor, even if she didn't know about the Time Lock.

The Doctor straightened as K9 came back to life, his head and tail perking up. The three at the table stood, with Rose and Mickey joining them.

"Master." K9 said haltingly.

The Guardian smiled when the Doctor grinned. "He recognizes me!"

"Affirmative."

"How have you been, K9?" The Doctor rubbed the metal dog behind his left ear.

The Guardian exchanged a playfully exasperated glance with Sarah Jane and pulled the jar of oil out of her pocket. "Darling, there is a possible alien invasion of Earth in progress. We really should stay on task."

"Right." The Doctor took the jar and opened it, about to stick his finger in it.

"I wouldn't touch it," Rose interrupted. "That dinner lady got all scorched."

"I'm no dinner lady." The Doctor replied coldly.

"You don't hear that too often." The Guardian quipped as the Doctor took a sample from the jar—with his bare fingers—and smeared it on the probe in K9's head.

"Oil... Ex-ex-ex-extract…. Ana-ana-analyzing..."

Mickey chuckled. "Listen to him, man. That's a voice."

Sarah Jane shot him an offended glare. "Careful. That's my dog."

"Confirmation of analysis." K9 said suddenly.

The Guardian nodded, taking one of the chips she had bought. These tasted far better than the ones at the school. "That was a lot faster than I expected. Especially with this one having fixed him."

The Doctor turned slightly. "Oi!"

The Guardian smirked and stuffed a chip into his open mouth. "Focus on the metal dog."

"K9, what is it?" Sarah Jane asked, also smiling at the exchange between the two Gallifreyans.

"Substance is Krillitane Oil."

The Doctor stiffened. "Are you sure, K9?"

The Guardian laid a hand on his back. _'Eltanin, what are the Krillitanes?'_ For once, this was a race she had never heard of.

"Affirmative."

"Is that bad?" Rose asked.

"Very." The Doctor straightened and began pacing. "You can't even imagine how very."

"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane spoke.

"They're a composite race, an amalgam of the races they've conquered." The Guardian answered, picking up all the stray thoughts from the Doctor as he seemed to be trying to figure out how on Earth to handle the information.

He spoke a moment later. "But they don't take bits of culture, like you lot have, they take physical aspects. They pick the best bits from the races they destroy. That's why I didn't recognize them, the last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us, except they had really long necks."

"What're they doing here?" Rose asked, her eyes wide.

The Guardian closed her own eyes in dread as she realized. "The extra classes! The deadlocked computers! They're doing something to the children!"

The other four people in the shop looked at her with equal horror.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

While the Doctor and Mickey loaded K9 back into Sarah Jane's car, the Guardian ended up taking a few moments to talk to the woman alone, since Rose had tagged along with the two men.

"Guardian, you said the Doctor told you all about me. Did I do something...wrong?"

The Guardian shook her head. "No, of course not."

Sarah Jane sighed, though not really with relief. "Then… why did he never come back for me?"

The Guardian was silent for a moment, as she searched through the memories she had seen. "The Doctor hates endings. He hates to see things die. You're human, Sarah. You age, and one day you'll die. And he can't bear to watch that." She smiled sadly. "The Doctor runs away from time, from loss. I'm the only one who has been able to catch up to him."

"Because you can also regenerate?"

The Guardian nodded. "It's the gift and the curse of the Time Lords."

Then, faintly, she heard a familiar voice exclaim, "Time Lords."

She looked up just in time to see a Krillitane swoop down from the school roof. "Get down!" She dragged Sarah Jane to the pavement, careful not to fall on her stomach. The Krillitane passed over them close enough that it could have grabbed them if it wanted to, but instead it just flew away.

 _'Amadahy!'_ The Doctor ran over and helped the Guardian up. "Are you alright?" He pulled her into his arms.

"Yeah. But Finch knows what we are."

The Doctor nodded stiffly as Sarah Jane stood.

"Was that a Krillitane?" She said.

Mickey and Rose joined them. "It didn't even touch them," Rose commented. "What did it do that for?"

"It wanted us to know that it knew."

"Knew what?" Mickey asked.

The Guardian pulled one of her guns out of her jacket, surprising Sarah Jane. "That we're coming."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The next morning, two Gallifreyans and three humans watched as hundreds of children arrived at school.

"Sarah, go to the Maths room." The Guardian took charge. "I don't care how you do it, but get those computers open so I can get to the hardware inside." She turned to the Doctor and pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and handed it to Sarah. "You may need this. Rose, go with her.

"Mickey, I want you on surveillance. If you see anything, call me or Rose. Sarah, could he borrow the keys to your car? We may need a getaway, since the Doctor moved the TARDIS last night."

"Of course." Sarah Jane tossed Mickey her keys. "You can also keep K9 company."

"What're you going to do?" Rose asked.

"The Guardian and I are going to have a word with Mister Finch." The Doctor responded grimly.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They found Mr. Finch beside the swimming pool. The two species, Gallifreyan and Krillitane, stood on opposite sides.

"Who are you?" The Doctor spoke first.

"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?"

"The Doctor."

"And the Guardian. Since when did Krillitanes have wings?" She asked. The Doctor had told her everything he remembered about them the night before.

"It's been our form for nearly ten generations now." Finch replied lightly. "Our ancestors invaded Bessan, and the people there had some rather lovely wings." He smiled darkly. "They made a million widows in one day. Just imagine."

"I don't have to." The Guardian responded flatly.

The Doctor flinched and he took her hand. He didn't have to either. He had seen all of the Weapon's massacres through her own eyes, and a couple of them personally. The major difference was that she left no one alive, so that no one was left to deal with the horrifying memories and the guilt of surviving.

"And now you're shaped human." The Doctor stated.

"A personal favorite, that's all."

"And the others?" The Guardian asked.

"My brothers remain in bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath. And what of the Time Lords?" Finch asked, changing the subject. "I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos. Except for her."

The Doctor stiffened, his hand tightening around the Guardian's. "What do you mean?"

Finch chuckled. "All the Universe knows about the Guardian. The 'hope of the Time Lords'. The ultimate Weapon against the Daleks. And yet it seems that she failed. The Time Lords are all but extinct, except for you. And her. I wonder how that happened? It seems the Warrior and the Weapon were really cowards at heart."

The Doctor didn't even try to stop her as the Guardian pulled out one of her guns. A part of him wanted her to shoot Finch for his words.

"This plan of yours is going to end." The Guardian said calmly, firmly.

"And yet you don't even know what it is. How can you stop it when you can't even break into our computer systems?"

"I don't need to. What are thirteen more lives to me?"

"Fascinating." Finch breathed a laugh. "The Time Lords were peaceful to the point of indolence, and yet they managed to create you—a being without conscience."

The Doctor felt the Guardian flinch in his mind.

"Would you declare war on us, Weapon?"

"No, I will if I have to." The Doctor responded for her. "I used to have so much mercy. But I'm old now. You just got your one warning." With one hand on the Guardian's back, he urged her out of the room.

Behind them, they heard Finch shout, "But we're not even enemies. Soon you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join us—I promise you!"

Suddenly, the Guardian whirred around and shot the wall just over Finch's shoulder. As he looked in shock at the new tear in his jacket caused by the energy bullet, the Guardian said darkly, "I didn't miss. That was your one warning from me."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

As the Doctor led her through the corridors, the Guardian was shaking from how close she had come to killing Finch. But that would have thrown off their plans. Since Finch still thought they would join the Krillitanes when they discovered the bats' plans, the Krillitanes wouldn't attack yet. If she had killed Finch…

All bets would have been off.

The Gallifreyans walked into an IT classroom to see Rose and Sarah Jane glaring at each other, Sarah Jane fuming.

"Is it true?" Sarah Jane snapped when they walked in. "Did Rose really try to save a Dalek?"

"I didn't know!"

"That is a conversation for another time," the Guardian replied that the same time that the Doctor said "yes".

The Guardian whirled around to glare at him. "We do not have time for this. Any of this! I need to get inside those computers, and figure out what the hell the Krillitanes are doing to these children."

A klaxon sounded, and an announcement was heard. "All pupils to class immediately. And would all members of staff congregate in the staff room."

The Guardian immediately moved over to the head computer and began typing every code she could think of. A moment later, she heard the other three turning to their own tasks.

The Guardian was so focused on breaking through the encryption on the software that it surprised her when green alien symbols appeared on the black screen. She looked around to see that all the computers and the screen at the front of the classroom had the same program up. She froze, recognizing it. She dreamed of it.

It was always a part of her nightmares. At least, the ones caused by memories.

"You wanted the program? There it is."

"What is it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned. "Some sort of code."

"It's the Skasis Paradigm."

The Doctor spun around to face her, his expression reflecting her own horror.

"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked.

"The god maker," the Guardian replied. "The universal theory. Legend has it that if you crack the equation you have control of the building blocks of the Universe. Time and space and matter are yours to control."

"What, and they're using the kids like a giant computer?"

The Guardian nodded. "Yes, but I even I couldn't crack it." She glanced at the two humans. "A hundred years of my life was dedicated to this task. That's the whole reason my training included computer systems and coding. The Time Lords wanted that power." She frowned. "But if I couldn't crack it, what makes the Krillitanes think that human children could?"

"The oil!" The Doctor said suddenly. "Their learning power is being accelerated by the oil."

The Guardian's eyes widened. "A conducting agent to make the kids cleverer?"

"But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them." Rose said.

"What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" The Doctor asked, not looking away from the program.

"Two thousand and sixty-five." Rose replied without hesitation. "Oh, my god..."

The Guardian glanced at the girl. "Exactly."

"But why use children?" Sarah Jane asked. "Can't they use adults?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's got to be children. The god maker needs imagination to crack it."

"They're using their souls to break the code." The Guardian felt sick.

"Let the lesson begin."

Everyone spun around to see Mr. Finch had entered the room.

"Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the Universe and improve it."

"And what's your idea of improving the Universe? Giving it the face of Mr. Finch? I knew a man who would have tried something like that, but I'm a bit old-fashioned. I like things as they are."

Finch's chuckle was colored by disbelief. "You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."

"What, by someone like you?"

Finch smiled at the Guardian's question. "No, someone like you, Doctor."

The Guardian glanced at the Doctor. Power like this… it would turn a Time Lord into a vengeful god. No one could wield the power of the Paradigm for good, especially not someone with darkness like the Doctor's.

"The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a god at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilizations you could save. Perganon, Assinta—your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn."

"Doctor, don't listen to him!" Sarah Jane cried.

Finch turned his attention to her. "And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting, Doctor. So many good-byes. So many endings."

The Guardian flinched. He must have heard her say that to Sarah Jane the night before.

"I could save everyone." The Doctor turned to the Guardian, his eyes excited. "I could save _them_."

Them. His family. Her family.

She moved over to place her hands on either side of his face, to pull him down to rest his forehead against hers. _'Eltanin, no.'_

 _'Why, Amadahy. You could have that second chance with your daughter. We could save our families.'_

 _'At what cost?'_

She felt him stiffen.

 _'Our families are dead._ _Kateri_ _has been dead for eight hundred years._ _Bringing them back to life is not worth your soul. And that would be the cost—no one can have that power and not be corrupted eventually.'_ She took a deep breath to help her control her tears. _'Everything ends, Eltanin. But in those endings are new beginnings.'_

Just as soon as this was all over, she was going to tell him about one such new beginning.

Slowly, the Doctor nodded. "Well, Finch, I'm afraid that I'll have to say no."

The Guardian grabbed a chair and threw it at the screen at the front of the classroom, shattering it. "Out!" She yelled to Sarah Jane and Rose.

Finch screamed for his brothers.

The four of them ran through the corridors and down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, they met Mickey and a boy of about thirteen.

"What is going on?" Mickey asked, seeing the now-undisguised Krillitanes coming down one of the corridors at them.

"Keep going!" The Guardian yelled, pulling out one of her guns. She shot on of the creatures in the center of the forehead. It dropped the floor, dead.

She turned to see the Doctor waiting for her. "What the hell are you doing?"

He grabbed her hand as soon as she was close enough. "I'm not going to leave you."

The Guardian rolled her eyes, though a part of her was touched by his concern. The part of her that was not frustrated at him for putting himself in danger.

They ran to the empty canteen, followed rather closely by Finch and several Krillitanes. The Doctor ran for the doors on the other side of the room, but they were locked. Finch and the three remaining Krillitanes stormed into the room before he could sonic it open.

"Are they my teachers?" The boy asked.

"Yep." The Doctor responded.

"Mine were worse." The Guardian offered. She'd far rather deal with Krillitines than her instructors.

"We need the Doctor alive." Finch instructed his brothers. "As for the others? You can feast. The Guardian should be especially tasty."

The male Krillitanes began swooping in, quickly joined by the females, who came out of nowhere. Everyone dived under tables, except the Guardian and the Doctor. He tried to fend them off with a chair, while she stood her ground, pulling out a gun for each hand. As a Krillitane dived for her, she crouched and rolled away, coming up just in time to shoot two of the attacking bats.

Ten to go.

Finch screamed in fury.

Hearing something behind her, she spun around and shot yet another Krillitane.

Nine left.

She too easily fell into a rhythm—the deadly dance of the Weapon. Turn, shoot. Roll, shoot. Dive, shoot.

She could hear her instructors' voices in her head, as clear as if they were shouting at her right then.

 _"You must make it look effortless. Never let them see your weakness."_

 _"Shoot faster. Last longer. Fight harder. Die better."_

She absently noted that the Krillitanes' numbers were down to five.

Then a laser beam brought another bat down, unconscious rather than dead. The Guardian turned to see—

"K9!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress." The metal dog replied.

"Run!" The Doctor shouted, pointing towards a door.

The humans ran, followed quickly by the Gallifreyans. Finch continued to scream behind them.

"K9, hold them back!"

"Affirmative, master. Maximum defense mode."

They ran down the short corridor and ducked into the Doctor's physics laboratory. The Doctor sealed the doors with the sonic screwdriver.

The humans all looked at the Guardian with a mix of shock and horror, Sarah Jane especially. She looked away. No one on Gallifrey had looked at her like that, and neither had anyone in her adventures with the Doctor, up until now. Most of the people they encountered had heard of the Weapon, so they weren't surprised by what she could do.

This was the first time anyone had seen what she was capable of without already knowing a little.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Mickey asked quietly.

The Guardian sighed. "Hell." She glanced up at Sarah Jane to see a flicker of sympathy in her eyes. She turned her attention to the pacing Doctor. "Assets?"

He suddenly turned to her, his expression lighting up. "The oil! You said that it burned the Krillitane yesterday?"

The Guardian gestured to Rose. The girl nodded. "Scorched her. She was screaming like someone had thrown acid on her."

"Of course!" The Doctor exclaimed, his face lighting up. "They've changed their physiology so often that their own oil has become toxic. Rose, how much was there?"

"Barrels of it."

There was a massive bang as the Krillitanes began battering on the door, their claws ripping through the metal.

"We need to get to the kitchens." The Doctor grinned.

"Just like with the Slitheen." The Guardian returned his grin, then turned to Mickey. "We're going to free the children and get them out of the school."

The Doctor began pacing again. "Bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?"

Before the Guardian could reply, the young boy went over to a fire alarm and smashed it in with his elbow.

"You are brilliant." The Guardian said to him before they run into the corridor. There were Krillitanes on both sides of the narrow hall, but they were in agony, making it easy to slip by them.

Once they were outside the canteen, the Guardian and Mickey divided from the rest of the group. The fire alarm stopped.

"Quick!" The Guardian said to Mickey. "There's a main classroom. That should be where the master computer is."

They found the students staring at their computers, typing rapidly.

"Okay, listen everyone. We've got to get out of here."

The students didn't respond, even when Mickey waved his hand in front of their faces. The Guardian found an empty computer and listened to the headset. She dropped it as she recoiled from the sound.

"The Krillitanes have put them in a trance, the sort meant to increase their creativity, while drowning out all natural criticism—that little voice that tells you you're not doing something right. It also cuts out distractions, tiredness, but it drains the life right out of them." She shuddered. "No wonder so many students are getting ill."

"So how do we stop it?" Mickey asked.

"By shutting down the program." The Guardian hurried over the main computer.

She began typing rapidly, hoping against logic that this computer was less guarded than the rest of them.

Suddenly, the computer sparked and the screen went blank.

The Guardian looked around for Mickey to find him behind her, having literally pulled the plug on the program. "You're a genius."

The kids slowly woke up, looking around.

"Everyone out!" Mickey shouted.

The Guardian added, "now!"

The children stood and hurried for the door. As soon as they could, Mickey and the Guardian made their way to the next classrooms, to see that those children were also awake and making their way to the exits.

They followed the kids to the schoolyard, urging them further away from the school. Moments after they were clear, the building exploded.

 _'Eltanin!'_ The Guardian shouted in her mind, looking around for him.

 _'I'm okay.'_

She breathed a sigh of relief. _'All of you?'_

 _'Except K9.'_

The Guardian looked down at the sadness in her husband's voice. He had lost an old friend that day.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Sometime later, the Doctor and the Guardian stepped out of the TARDIS as Sarah Jane walked up.

"Care to take a brief trip with us?" The Doctor asked her. "Just for old times' sake?"

She started to shake her head.

"Sarah, we need to drop Mickey and Rose off." The Guardian added. "Besides, we have a surprise for you."

After a moment, Sarah Jane smiled and walked inside, where Rose and Mickey were waiting. "Oh! You've redecorated!"

The Guardian hurried over and flipped a few switches. The time machine dematerialized, then rematerialized a moment later. "Powell Estate. Off you go."

Rose and Mickey made their way out, Rose staying as far away from the console as she could when she walked past it. Sarah Jane followed them, but only to look outside.

"I don't believe it..." She turned to the Guardian. "I never thought the TARDIS could fly so smoothly!"

"I actually passed my pilot's test." The Guardian smirked.

The Doctor shot her a mock glare, then cleared his throat. "Right. Sarah, your surprise is just behind that door."

Sarah Jane smiled curiously and hurried over to the door leading to the rest of the TARDIS, almost looking twenty again. The Guardian set the coordinates for the park again and took the TARDIS back.

"K9!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "But you were blown up!"

The Guardian joined the Doctor as he leaned against the console, watching Sarah Jane reunite with her dog. She wrapped her arm around his waist, and he did the same to her.

"You replaced him with a brand new model!" Sarah Jane turned back to them, tears in her eyes. She hurried over and the Doctor released the Guardian to give her a hug.

"You know, it's daft, but I haven't ever thanked you for that time." She said as they walked back towards the door, K9 following.

"Something to tell the grandkids." The Doctor replied.

Sarah Jane smiled sadly. "Probably someone else's grandkids. There never was anyone for me. Good-bye, Doctor."

"Oh, don't say—"

"Doctor," the Guardian broke in quietly. "Say it for her." She could tell that the human needed that closer, even if they would no doubt be seeing her again.

"Please." Sarah Jane begged.

The Doctor sighed and looked at both women. "Good-bye, Sarah."

They hugged one last time, and Sarah Jane and K9 stepped out of the TARDIS.

The Guardian turned to the Doctor. "Just a moment." She followed Sarah Jane outside, calling to the woman as soon as they were far enough from the TARDIS.

"Yes?" Sarah Jane turned back.

"How do you feel about telling those stories to a couple of godchildren?"

She looked confused for a moment, then her eyes widened. "You mean… Of course! It would be my honor!"

The Guardian shook her head. "It would be mine."

The two women hugged once more, and then the Guardian walked back to the TARDIS.

 _"What was that about?"_ The Doctor asked her as soon as she walked in.

The Guardian smiled. _"I was asking her how she felt about being a godmother to a couple of Time Children."_

The Doctor blinked. _"What?"_

 _"You do remember what Time Children are?"_ She teased, enjoying the look of shock on his face. _"Infant Time Lords… or Ladies… or in this case, one of each."_

 _"You're..."_ Tears formed in his eyes. _"Amadahy?"_

She nodded, understanding his hesitance. After everyone they had lost, it seemed foolish to hope. And yet… She pulled his forehead down to hers, and placed one of his hands on her stomach. Then she opened her mind, allowing him to connect with their tiny twins. Once they were born, he would be able to form his own bond with them. But for now, it had to be done through her.

She felt his shoulders shake as he felt the presence of their son and daughter, and she smiled.

Both of their families had ended when Gallifrey burned.

But here, in the out-dated, type-40 TARDIS, their new family had begun.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Getting this episode in a day early, since I'm staffing a youth camp this week and may or may not get time tomorrow.**

 **They're having twins! Yay! But don't worry-this fic is not about to get domestic. And, the twins will have a massive impact in why things go the way they do in Series 2. Meanwhile: MORE FLUFF!**

 **Also, I think this is the first time we've ever seen the Guardian slip back into "Weapon Mode". Well, not full "Weapon Mode". None of the Krillitanes would have survived if she had gone all the way.**

 **Oh, and did anyone catch the reference to the Master? When I got to that line, I immediately thought of "The End of Time" and HAD to put that in.**

 **Next time, we have another Series 2 episode (it's actually really fun to imagine how Nine would react to some of the situations that Ten is put in), but this one actually does have a connection to the Series 1 story arch.**

 **Review Notes:**

 **NicoleR85-The events of Series 2 will occur. How I handle them will be a bit different. Also, River and the Guardian's relationship... well, I haven't seen a fanfiction yet that gives her this relationship with the OC. (Let's just leave it at that...)**


	11. Chapter 11: Tooth and Claw

**I don't own Doctor Who, only the Guardian and the twins (sort of—it's really complicated, and will be explained later). But if I did own Doctor Who, there would be a Time Lady. And Martha wouldn't have spent her whole time on the show begin compared to Rose.**

 **Okay, I'm going to start this with a brief note, since I couldn't figure out a way to work this information into the story in a way that made sense.**

 **The Guardian is currently half-way through an eight-month pregnancy. This this story-verse, Gallifreyan newborns are about half the size of the average human newborn (usually about 4-5 pounds/about 2 kilos), and the way Time Ladies carry their pregnancies mean that they barely look pregnant, even full term. So even though she's half-way through her pregnancy, she doesn't look it.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _"_ _Ian Dury! 1979."_ The Doctor hit some buttons with a flourish and turned back to the Guardian. _"How often do you get to see Ian Dury in concert?"_

The Guardian laughed. _"Married to you? As often as I wish."_

He grinned in response and leaned over to kiss her before resting his forehead against hers. She heard him call out to their twins in his mind, but she did her best to ignore the conversation, giving them what little privacy that she could.

The last two months, since the Doctor learned of her pregnancy, had actually been incredibly quiet. He'd been letting her fly the TARDIS far more often, so they actually ended up where they wanted to go, and when he did drive, it seemed like the TARDIS also wanted them safe, as they usually only found themselves in safe places.

The first anti-gravity Olympics. The original Olympics. The Moon Landing. The first woman—and human—on Mars. The inauguration of the first British-born President of America.

Once a Time Child was psychically bonded to their mother, they were aware of what was going on around them, and would remember events that happened prior to their birth. Right now, while they were still safe from the rest of the Universe, the Doctor wanted to take them on all sorts of fun adventures.

The Guardian smiled sadly as she remembered what would happen after the twins were born. The Doctor had decided—without her—to give up adventures until the twins were old enough to protect themselves.

Oh, they would still travel. But any sign of danger and they would leave. For the next five decades. Because the Guardian refused to force her children to learn how to fight as early as she had. No, in normal circumstances, Gallifreyan children were to be protected by the adults around them until they were 50 years old.

The Doctor kissed her again, telling her that his conversation with their twins had finished. Four more months, and he could form his own bond with them. The Guardian smiled again as she watched the Doctor run around the console, imagining him teaching their son and daughter how to fly the old time machine.

Then she frowned. The pregnancy hormones most have done something to her brain. The Doctor was most certainly _not_ going to be the one teaching the twins how to fly the TARDIS. That was the last thing the Time Vortex needed—three bad pilots in one TARDIS.

 _"Sheffield, England, Earth. The twenty-first of November, 1979."_ The Doctor flipped one last switch and the TARDIS landed with a jolt that nearly made the Guardian lose her balance.

The Doctor took her hand and pulled her towards the outer doors. _"Now, 1979. That was a hell of a year. China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie. Margaret Thatcher."_ He made a face, his dislike of the woman clear. _"Skylab fell to Earth, with a little help from yours truly."_

The Guardian nodded, remembering him telling her about that adventure during one of his visits to Gallifrey. _"Didn't that one nearly take off your thumb?"_

The Doctor nodded and opened the door. Rifles clicked as soon as they stepped out. The Doctor grabbed her arm to stop her from reaching for the gun concealed at the small of her back. She fought him a bit, every instinct she had telling her to take out the soldiers to protect her husband and children.

 _'British soldiers, Amadahy.'_

The Guardian glanced at the soldiers once more, particularly their weapons. She relaxed a little and held up her hands in surrender. _'It's 1879.'_ The weapons alone attested to that.

 _'Same difference.'_

The Guardian glared at her rather indifferent husband as the soldiers' captain spoke.

"You will explain your presence." He spoke with a Scottish accent. "And the indecency of this woman."

The Guardian glanced down at her clothes. The Doctor had talked her into wearing a pair of very wide-legged denim trousers and a loose, flowing tunic that covered her still-unnoticeable baby bump. Compared to some of the 1970s Earth clothing that she had seen, this outfit was hardly indecent.

"You'll have to excuse my wife, captain." The Doctor had thickened his Northern accent so it sounded more Scottish. "Her mother died when she was a child, and she spent most of her life in India."

The Guardian saw the captain relax a little, seemingly relieved to hear that she wasn't in any trouble. Well, he trusted the Doctor easily.

"Will you identify yourself, sir?"

"Doctor..." The Doctor hesitated.

 _'_ _James_ _Mc_ _Crimmon._ _'_ The Guardian supplied, remembering the name from the Doctor's memories. One of his former companions, if she wasn't mistaken.

The Doctor smiled gratefully. "Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of Balamory. My wife, Allegra. My credentials, if I may?"

The captain nodded his assent and the Doctor dug in his jacket pocket for the psychic paper.

The Guardian grinned. "Darling, don't you remember? You gave me your credentials to carry." She retrieved the paper from the pocket of her tunic and handed it to her husband with a smirk.

He shot her a weak glare and gave it to the captain. "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."

Just then, a cultured English accent called from a nearby carriage. "Let them approach."

"I don't think that's wise, ma'am."

The Guardian and the Doctor exchanged curious glances.

"Let them approach." The woman insisted.

The captain looked back at them, resignation in his expression. "You will approach the carriage, and show all due deference."

 _'He means apologize for your attire.'_ The Doctor commented as they slowly walked over to the carriage. As they reached it, a footman open the door to reveal a stately woman in black. The Guardian immediately recognized her from a portrait she had seen when they visited King George VII at Buckingham Palace.

"Allegra, may I introduce Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, Empress of India and Defender of the Faith."

The Guardian curtseyed as George's daughter, another Queen Victoria, had shown her. "Allegra McCrimmon, ma'am. My apologies for my indecency."

Queen Victoria looked more amused than offended. "I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me." She turned her attention to the Doctor. "But you, Doctor McCrimmon, show me these credentials."

The Doctor passed the psychic paper to her. The Guardian briefly hoped that this Victoria wouldn't prove as clever as her descendent, who had been able to see through the psychic paper immediately.

The Queen looked at it in surprise. "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my protector."

"It does?" The Doctor asked, just as surprised.

The Guardian groaned. That wouldn't help their cover any. "If I may, Your Majesty, why are you traveling by road rather than train?"

 _'Good question.'_

 _'Good distraction.'_

"A tree on the line." Queen Victoria replied, her features hardening slightly.

"And no doubt not an accident." The Guardian replied, seeing that her husband was about to ask an obvious and rather ridiculous question, considering who they were speaking to.

The Queen nodded. "I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned."

"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence," the captain spoke. "We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow."

"Doctor McCrimmon and his wife will come with us."

The Gallifreyan couple both smiled their gratitude at the queen. Turning away slightly, the Guardian's smile turned into a frown. It seemed that the TARDIS had broken her rule of keeping the Guardian and the twins away from dangerous places. So why was that?

"Yes, Ma'am." The captain said. "We'd better get moving—it's almost nightfall."

"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts." Queen Victoria smiled. "Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think. Drive on!"

The footman closed the door and the carriage drove forward. The Gallifreyans found themselves walking behind the carriage, amid the soldiers. The Doctor took her hand.

 _'So, we just met Queen Victoria.'_ She said.

 _'Yep.'_ The Doctor replied absently. The Guardian frowned, knowing that he was as concerned as she was that the TARDIS had brought them here.

 _'Toria would be excited.'_

 _'Yep.'_

The Guardian sighed. Time to do something rather drastic to keep it light. _'Toria told me that her ancestor was famous for the phrase "we are not amused". I bet you five quid she'll say it.'_

The Doctor looked at her now, frowning slightly. _'That's an abuse of our privileges as time travelers and you know it.'_

 _'Ten quid?'_

 _'Done.'_

The Guardian grinned. She was going to win this one without even trying.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

By the time that they arrived at the estate of Sir Robert McLeish, the Guardian was cross with the Doctor. As it had grown dark, he had taken to guiding her along the rough road as if walking it had suddenly become worse than his driving.

Finally, the procession finished their journey in the courtyard of a grand old house that somewhat resembled a castle.

The Guardian and the Doctor stood back as a dark-haired man in his thirties came out of the house and approached the Queen, who had just gotten out of her carriage. The Guardian noted with some concern the bald butler who stood behind Sir Robert, and the bald footmen who stood just outside the house.

"Your Majesty." He bowed.

"Sir Robert," the queen replied fondly. "My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?"

He stiffened. "She's… indisposed. I'm afraid she's gone to Edinburgh for the season. And she's taken the cook with her. The kitchens are barely stocked. I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on."

The Guardian frowned. _'He's desperate that she leave.'_

 _'Quite. The butler?'_

She took another look at the stern older man. _'No doubt he has threatened Lady Isobel.'_ Sir Robert hadn't seemed noticeably nervous until his wife was mentioned.

The Doctor looked at her, then his gaze dropped to her stomach. _'We can leave. Let everything that happens here happen.'_

The Guardian scowled at him. _'No. We don't walk away. The TARDIS brought us here for a reason, and I want to know what that reason is.'_

"I've had quite enough carriage exercise." Queen Victoria replied. "And this is charming—if rustic. It's my first visit to his house. My late husband spoke of it often. The Torchwood Estate. Now, shall we go inside?"

Sir Robert nodded stiffly, dismay noticeable in his expression for a moment.

The Queen gestured to the Guardian. "And please excuse Mrs. McCrimmon's attire. She was raised in India."

"My apologies, Sir Robert." The Guardian smiled sweetly and curtseyed.

She eyed the butler and footmen once more. They were warriors. The signs were unmistakeable—build, posture, expression. So if these men were warriors, then Mrs. Allegra McCrimmon needed to be a helpless housewife.

"Shall we proceed?" The Queen led the way into the house, followed by Sir Robert and the butler and footmen.

"Makerson and Ramsey, you will escort the property." Captain Reynolds called. "Hurry up."

The Guardian and the Doctor watched as the two Redcoats took a small locked box out of the carriage and carried it into the house.

"So what's in there, then?" The Doctor mused.

Reynolds overheard him. "Property of the Crown. You will dismiss any further thoughts, sir."

The Gallifreyans exchanged a curious look. As Captain Reynolds ordered his men to their positions, the Guardian linked her arm with the Doctor's like a proper lady of the times and they walked into the house.

They easily found the Queen and Sir Robert, and the master of the house offered them a tour. The Guardian listened, rather bored, as Sir Robert explained the history of the estate, but she made note of the house's layout as they moved from room to room.

Finally, he led them into an observatory. A massive telescope dominated the room, peering out through an opening in the glass roof.

The Doctor grinned at the sight, and the Guardian could feel his excitement.

"This, I take it, is the famous endeavor?" The queen commented.

"All my father's work," Sir Robert explained. "Build by hand in his final years. Became something of an obsession. He spent more money on this rather than caring for the house or himself."

"I wish I'd met him—I like him. That thing's beautiful." He looked over at Sir Robert. "May I?"

"Help yourself."

The Doctor pulled the Guardian over to the telescope. "What did he model it after?"

"I know nothing about it. To be honest, most of us thought him a little… shall we say, eccentric." He smiled regretfully. "I wish now I'd spent more time with him and listened to his stories."

 _'Eccentric is right,'_ the Doctor commented. _'Way too many prisms. The magnification's gone over the top. It's rubbish.'_

The Guardian looked around the room, frowning. There was something about this room… something wasn't quite right.

"Your father's imagination should be applauded." The queen said. "Sir Robert's father was an example to us all. A polymath, steeped in astronomy and sciences, yet equally well-versed in folklore and fairytales."

"Stars _and_ magic. I like him more and more." The Doctor commented, crossing his arms as the Guardian slipped her arm back through his. His other hand covered hers, and she leaned slightly against him, her head resting against his shoulder.

Queen Victoria smiled nostalgically at them. "Yes, my late husband enjoyed his company. Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe-Coburg. When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported."

 _'I thought there weren't any more wolves in Great Britain.'_

 _'That's a matter of debate.'_ The Doctor replied, then spoke to Sir Robert. "So, what's this wolf, then?"

"It's just a story." Sir Robert dismissed nervously.

"Then tell it, Sir Robert." The Guardian encouraged, noting the butler's shifting.

Sir Robert hesitated, just slightly glancing behind him. At the butler. "It's said that—"

"Excuse me, sir." The butler interrupted, his words polite but his tone hard. "Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark."

Sir Robert stiffened, then forced a smile. "Of course. Yes, of course."

"And then supper." The queen added, clearly not noticing anything wrong. "And could we find some clothes for Mrs. McCrimmon? You may have worn such clothing in India, Mrs. McCrimmon, but this is Great Britain."

The Guardian hid her annoyance behind a sweet smile. "I don't suppose it is very amusing, is it?"

The Doctor's hand tightened on hers. _'That's cheating.'_

The queen shot her a glare. "Sir Robert, your wife must have left some clothes. See to it. We shall dine at seven, and talk some more of this wolf. After all, there is a full moon tonight."

"So there is, Ma'am." Sir Robert bowed, but it seemed more like a convulsion.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor insisted on joining the Guardian as she was led by yet another bald footman to Lady Isobel's chambers. There, she chose a pretty purple dress, before they were taken to the guest room where they were to stay the night.

The suspicious lack of maidservants in the house meant that the Doctor had to help her into the dress, which he did as they discussed what they had noticed.

 _'The butler is definitely in charge here.'_ The Guardian said. _'Did you notice how Sir Robert kept glancing at him?'_

 _'Yes, and before you bring it up, no, you are not going to let yourself get captured so you can see what's going on.'_

The Guardian frowned. That had been exactly what she was going to suggest. She winced as the Doctor laced the dress a little too tight. _'I will need to breathe, darling.'_

 _'Sorry.'_ The laces were loosened. _'Sir Robert seemed the most uncomfortable when the queen wanted to talk about the wolf.'_

 _'And the full moon…'_ The Guardian mused. _'Is there such a thing as werewolves?'_ She straightened her dress and moved over to her old clothing, which she had tossed on the bed.

 _'Lupine wavelength haemovariform.'_

She turned to look at the Doctor, confused.

' _Most people would call it a werewolf.'_

 _'Great.'_ The Guardian retrieved her gun from her clothes and strapped it to her thigh. _'So we may have a werewolf on out hands.'_

She looked over to see the Doctor staring. _'Darling, focus. We have a werewolf to deal with.'_

 _'Are you sure that you don't want to leave?'_

 _'I am.'_ She lifted one hand to press it against her stomach. _'What sort of example would we be setting if we abandoned these people now? I may be pregnant, but I'm not helpless.'_ She smirked. _'No matter what the butler and his men may be led to think.'_

 _'Still… you wouldn't happen to have any silver bullets, would you?'_

 _'In my pocket.'_

The Doctor grinned.

 _'In my jacket, which you made me leave in the TARDIS. Ten miles away.'_

The Doctor's grin disappeared. _'_ _A_ _h.'_

The Guardian smirked. "Come, Mr. McCrimmon. I believe we are late for supper."

Arms linked, they made their way to the dinning room, noting the lack of Redcoats along the way. They arrived just in time to hear Captain Reynolds laughing too enthusiastically at something the queen said.

"Very wise, Ma'am," he said. "Very witty."

"Slightly witty, perhaps." They heard the queen reply. "I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury."

As the captain apologized, the butler announced them.

"Doctor and Mrs. McCrimmon," the queen said. "You have arrived. Now Sir Robert may tell us a tale of nightmares. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction."

"You must miss him." The Guardian said, sitting in the chair beside Sir Robert's, which the Doctor held for her. He sat in the seat on her other side and took her hand.

Once again, the Guardian saw the queen watch them sadly. "Very much," she replied quietly, looking down. "Oh, completely."

She looked up again, a fake smile on her face. "And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait."

By the end of her speech, the queen looked as though she might cry. The Guardian watched her sadly, thinking of all the people she wished she knew were at peace. And those that she knew were frozen in a moment of fear and fire.

She glanced over at the Doctor. Pictures of his family flashed through her mind from his stray thoughts. She squeezed his hand.

"Come." The queen had recovered. "Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."

Sir Robert shifted, glancing at the butler once again, and then he began. "The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and d—devoured." He looked down at the final word.

"Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that."

Queen Victoria glared at Captain Reynolds, annoyed.

"But sometimes a _child_ goes missing," Sir Robert continued, drawing everyone's attention back to him. He focused on the Guardian and the Doctor, his eyes pleading for help. "Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead."

Now, that was _too_ perfect. Something like that could only be the result of deliberate action.

"Are there descriptions of the creature?" The Guardian asked.

"Oh, yes, Mrs. McCrimmon. Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."

"A werewolf?" The Doctor shifted so he could lean closer while still holding the Guardian's hand.

 _'So you were right, Amadahy.'_

 _'Wishing you hadn't made me leave my jacket and weapons in the TARDIS?'_ She quipped, but didn't look away from Sir Robert.

"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose." He shook his head. "I should have listened."

The butler walked behind Sir Robert, making everyone look at him, but the man was focused on looking out the window. At the full moon.

Sir Robert began speaking quickly, as though he didn't know how much time he had. "His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations."

Monks. That explained the bald heads.

The Guardian felt sick when she heard the butler begin chanting. "Lupus deus est."

The Wolf is god.

"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly." Queen Victoria said.

"That's what I thought. But now I wonder." Sir Robert glanced at the chanting butler. The Doctor and the Guardian both followed his gaze, and this time didn't look away.

"What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshipped the Wolf?"

"And what if they were with us right now?" The Doctor said quietly, still looking at the butler.

The Guardian glanced at Sir Robert and saw relief in his eyes. She rose slowly. "What if this has all been a trap for the queen?"

At her words, everyone stood.

"What is the meaning of this? What's happening?" The queen shouted, at the same time that Captain Reynolds pulled out his gun and demanded Sir Robert explain himself.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. They've got my wife."

"Then where is she, Sir Robert? Show us!" The Guardian led the way to the door, cursing her dress.

"The cellar, Mrs. McCrimmon." As soon as the corridor became wide enough, Sir Robert passed her and showed the Gallifreyans the way to the cellar.

The locked cellar. With the sounds of growling coming from behind the door.

"Allow me, gentlemen." The Guardian held her skirts up and out of the way and kicked the door open.

The trio burst into the room to see the proper household staff staring in horror as a young man in a cage morphed into a wolf.

The Doctor glanced at it for a moment, then flashed the sonic screwdriver at the chains restraining the servants and lady of the manor. The shackles fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Come on, go!" Sir Robert shouted, hurrying over to his wife. "Get out."

The wolf began to break out of his cage.

With plenty of screams, the staff and lord and lady ran out of the room. Finally, the Doctor and the Guardian ran, slamming the door shut just as the Wolf threw a piece of its cage at them. The Doctor locked the door with the sonic.

Behind them, they heard the Wolf howl.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They found everyone in the gun room, the steward handing out every gun in the large cabinet on the wall. The Guardian winced. She doubted even her gun was powerful enough to kill it.

This thing had had three hundred years to mature and grow stronger.

"Well, any ideas?" She asked as a tearful Lady Isobel ran out of the room, the maidservants following her.

"It could be any form of light-modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. They really didn't teach you about werewolves in your training?"

"Nope, because werewolves are supposed to be just a legend!"

There was a crash.

"There goes the cellar door," the Guardian remarked drily.

She moved over to the arch that led into the corridor. The Wolf was at the other end, walking towards her on two legs.

She pulled up her skirt, grabbed her gun, and shot the creature three times in close succession.

The creature fell back for a moment, then lunged forward.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the gun room. They ran behind the line of armed men.

A moment later, the Wolf charged in.

"Fire! Fire!" The steward cried.

The Wolf fled back into the corridor.

"Alright, men." The Guardian said, discarding the image of the meek wife. She was a soldier. She would act like one. "We should retreat upstairs."

"I'll not retreat like a frightened woman!" The steward replied, glaring at her through the haze of gun smoke. "The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault."

"It's not from Earth, you idiot!"

"Nonsense. I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." He walked over and stepped into the corridor. He smirked and turned back. "It must have crawled away to die."

"I'm telling you, get back here. You didn't kill it!"

The steward chuckled, not believing them. Suddenly, he was grabbed by something above him and hoisted up to the ceiling amid the sound of growls. They watched as the Wolf tore the steward apart.

"There's nothing we can do!" The Doctor shouted. He grabbed the Guardian's hand and pulled her towards the staircase. The sounds of gunshots and growls and men's screams followed them up the stairs.

"Your Majesty?" Sir Robert shouted ahead of them. "Your Majesty!"

The queen hurried down the staircase towards the trio. "Sir Robert? What's happening? I heard such terrible noises."

The Guardian hurried to the front hall, only to see that their escape had been cut off. She returned to everyone else. "The front door has been boarded shut. Your Majesty, it seems your only escape will be out a window."

The queen raised her chin primly, and she led the group into a nearby drawing room. Sir Robert pushed himself in front of Queen Victoria.

"Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first. The better to assist Her Majesty's egress."

"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh," the queen replied angrily.

The Guardian rolled her eyes. "Perhaps you could try being a little more gracious, Your Majesty. Need I remind you that you were the one who insisted on staying here?"

Sir Robert send the Guardian a grateful look and climbed up to open the window.

Shots were fired outside, forcing everyone to duck. The Guardian moved over to another window to see three monks dressed in scarlet robes, all three holding rifles that looked quite a bit like the ones the Redcoats carried.

"Seems the monks want us to stay inside." She said.

"Do they know who I am?" The queen was outraged.

"I reckon that's why they want you, Your Majesty." The Doctor replied. "Imagine it, if the Wolf was able to bite you..."

"Stop this talk!" Queen Victoria snapped. "There can't be an actual wolf."

As if the creature had heard her, there was a terrible howl that made everyone jump from how close it was. They ran out into the corridor to see that the wolf was trying to break through the door.

"Time to run." The Guardian said. "Since my supply of silver bullets happens to not be here at the moment."

She saw the Doctor redden as he turned to the queen. "Your Majesty, as a doctor, I recommend a vigorous job. Good for the health."

The Guardian grabbed the queen's hand. "Come on!"

The group ran up the stairs. They had made it up several flights when the Wolf broke through the door and followed after them. At the second highest floor, the Guardian pulled the queen down a corridor, glancing back to see the Doctor had taken the position at the end of the line.

The position closest to the Wolf.

 _'Eltanin, if that thing gets you, I will kill you.'_

She blinked at the absolutely illogical statement. Oh, for the love of Clom, was pregnancy stealing her intelligence?

She saw the Doctor grin, just as the Wolf appeared at the end of the corridor. It raced after them. The Guardian turned back just in time to see it lunge at her husband, who dove to the floor.

 _"_ _No!"_ She leveled her gun and fired at the same time another gun went off.

The Wolf fell back and retreated.

The Guardian hurried over and helped the Doctor up. Hand-in-hand, they darted around the corner, where they found Captain Reynolds, Sir Robert, and Queen Victoria.

"I'll take this position and hold it." Captain Reynolds began reloading his gun. "You keep moving, for god's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty."

"I have it. It's safe." The queen assured him.

Captain Reynolds smiled. "Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor McCrimmon, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the Crown."

The Guardian saw Sir Robert flinch. "Bullets can't stop it!"

"They'll buy you time. Now run!" Captain Reynolds stepped back into the corridor, gun ready.

The group ran into the library and barricaded the door with nearby furniture, amid the sounds of gunfire and the Wolf's growls. The Guardian could hear it getting closer and closer to Captain Reynolds' position, the bullets evidently having no effect.

Then they heard Captain Reynolds scream as the Wolf ripped him apart.

A moment later, they heard it creature howl.

The Guardian looked around and saw another door. "Barricade that door too." She and the two men quickly grabbed what furniture they could and covered the door.

She made her way back over to the first door, noting that the Wolf wasn't trying to claw its way in. "It's stopped." She climbed on the pile of furniture to listen.

"Guardian, careful."

"Shush!" She snapped. Everyone fell silent. On the other side of the door, she could hear the wolf sniff, then walk away. "Listen."

They could hear the creature growling as it walked along the walls of the room to the other door. It scratched at the door for a moment, then with a growl it stalked away.

"Okay, Doctor. So what stopped it?"

"Something inside this room. What is it? Why can't it get in?" The Doctor walked over and pulled her into his arms, resting his forehead against hers. _'You alright, Amadahy?'_

 _'I should ask you that.'_ Her embrace tightened as she remembered the moment before her and Captain Reynolds fired. _'I nearly lost you.'_ She whispered.

 _'But you didn't. It will take a whole lot more than a werewolf to take me away from you.'_ His arms shifted to be around her waist. _'Are the twins okay?'_

The Guardian closed her eyes to focus on sensing the babies. She smiled as she sensed their thrill and excitement. _'They're fine. Seth and Elizabeth going to be a couple of danger magnets, just like you.'_

The Doctor grinned at the little game they had been playing for the last two months. Since Gallifreyan tradition insisted that children not actually be named until their birth, the couple had been amusing themselves by referring to the twins by whatever name came to mind while they were speaking. Hopefully, they could find a couple of good Earth names for them, although the Guardian had already decided what she wanted to name her son, if she could convince the Doctor to agree.

She felt the Doctor telepathically connect to them himself. After seeing his only child die right in front of him, she realized that he needed the assurance that only checking for himself could give.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am."

The Guardian glanced over to see Sir Robert had collapsed in a chair, rubbing his forehead.

"It's all my fault," he continued, looking up. "I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong; I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"

"Of course we did," the Guardian replied, noting the fury in the queen's expression. She pulled away from the Doctor, noting that he was now satisfied that the twins were fine. "Your Majesty, Sir Robert is not a traitor."

"And how is he not? You said yourself that this was a trap for me. He was the one who lured me into the trap!"

"I also said that you were the one who chose to say here." The Guardian snapped back. "Sir Robert, you know as well as I that if you had tried to send the queen away, the monks would have attacked. They are highly trained warriors; they could have easily overpowered your guards, Ma'am, especially with the element of surprise."

"And what do you know of this?"

"Far more than I would wish to," the Guardian replied, her voice hard. The Doctor squeezed her hand, and she took a deep breath. "Sir Robert, right now your wife is alive, which wouldn't have happened if the queen had left. No doubt the monks would have murdered everyone here as soon as the queen was out of sight."

"Thank you, Mrs. McCrimmon." Sir Robert nodded. His shoulders relaxed as though he were no longer carrying a heavy burden.

"What, exactly—I pray, tell me—someone, please." The queen stammered. "What exactly is that creature?"

"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's more of a—" The Guardian put one hand on the Doctor's mouth.

"They don't need the complicated details." She looked at the queen. "It's a werewolf."

"And should I trust you? A woman hides behind illusion? Were you not the picture of a proper wife just an hour ago—your attire not withstanding?"

The Guardian winced. "Considering the suspicious staff, it seemed a better idea to—"

"I'll not have it." Queen Victoria interrupted. "Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Sometime later, everyone was still silent after the queen's declaration. The Doctor paced the library floor, his arm around the Guardian's waist.

He was proud of the way she had stood up to Queen Victoria for Sir Robert. He couldn't imagine being in Sir Robert's position, mostly because the Guardian wouldn't have gone down without a fight.

But still… even though he had never directly assisted in a plot against the Lord President, he had chosen the Guardian over Gallifrey before, and he knew he would do it again. There were some people that demanded more loyalty than one's monarch. Or planet.

Something on the door caught his eye, so he pulled the Guardian over to it. There was a carving of mistletoe on the door.

 _'What is it?'_ The Guardian asked.

 _'Mistletoe.'_ At her confused look, he asked, _'I haven't told you about mistletoe?'_

She shook her head, and he immediately kissed her. After a moment, she pulled back. _'And the point of that was?'_

He blushed a little. _'Old Earth tradition. They hang a sprig of mistletoe in the doorway at Christmas, and whenever a couple passes under it, they are expected to kiss.'_

 _'Right.'_ She looked less than impressed as she turned to Sir Robert. "This carving, Sir Robert, did your father put it here?"

"I don't know. I suppose."

The Doctor glanced at the door behind Sir Robert. It also had a carving of mistletoe. "But a carving wouldn't be enough." He considered the door beside him. "I wonder..."

He released to Guardian to get closer. He sniffed the wood, and then, on impulse, licked it.

"Darling, I sincerely hope that our children don't inherit that particular tendency of yours." She added telepathically, _'And I also hope it doesn't carry over into any future regenerations.'_

He grinned at her. "Oil of mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood as a varnish. Just how clever was your dad?" He slipped his arm back around her waist. "Mistletoe isn't just useful to steal a kiss. It's powerful stuff—bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."

"Well, I doubt the Wolf is conveniently allergic to it, so..." Her eyes widened and she pulled away from him so she could pace. "Of course! The monks would need a way of controlling it. A creature that powerful..." Something flickered in her eyes, making the Doctor wonder just what her instructors had used to control _her_.

She lifted her chin a little and turned to the queen and Sir Robert. "They would get into serious trouble if they couldn't control the Wolf. I wondered what that was!"

"What?" The Doctor frowned.

She looked back at him. "When I looked out the window in the drawing room, I saw these green garlands around the monks' necks. Those must have been mistletoe, to keep the Wolf from attacking them!"

"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, and we still don't possess an actual weapon."

The Doctor shook his head, frustrated with man. "Your father got all the brains, didn't he?" How could he not see? "You want weapons? We're in a library." He walked over to the nearest bookshelf. "Books! This room's the greatest arsenal we could have."

The Guardian winked at him. "Other than my collection of silver bullets."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian found it. "Look at this."

The Doctor and Sir Robert fell silent.

"Sir Robert, look what your father found. Something fell to Earth." She carried the book over to a desk, open to a drawing depicting the scene.

Her husband and Sir Robert joined her at the desk.

"'In the Year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James V, an almighty fire did burn in the pit.'" Sir Robert read. "That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the monastery."

"Three hundred years ago..." The Doctor mused. "Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations."

"That's why a boy would go missing once a generation." The Guardian added, understanding where his mind had gone. "It survived through the human hosts."

"And now it wants the Throne." Sir Robert finished, proving that, once again, the Doctor had been wrong. The man had inherited some of his father's intelligence.

The trio looked over at the terrified queen as she stood.

"Sir Robert, if I am to die here—"

He hurried over to his monarch. "Don't say that, Your Majesty."

"I would destroy myself, rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."

"This is hardly the time to worry about your valuables." The Doctor commented.

"Thank you for your opinion, but there is nothing more valuable than this." The queen reached inside her bag and pulled out a beautiful white diamond the size of her hand.

The Koh-I-Noor.

"This was given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."

"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough." The Guardian commented.

"Why do you travel with it?" The Doctor asked.

"My annual pilgrimage. I'm taking it to Helier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting."

"Why?" The Guardian frowned at the nearly perfect gem.

"My late husband had it cut down many times. He always said that the shine was not quite right. But he died with it still unfinished."

"Shine..." The Guardian breathed. "Oh!" That was _brilliant_!

The Doctor, Sir Robert, and Queen Victoria turned to her.

"Oh! The shine! Doctor, you said that the magnification on the telescope was way over the top?"

He nodded.

"What if it's not a telescope? Prisms _reflect_ light!" It all became clear. The observatory—everything in the room was placed _deliberately_. Planned. Untouched except for cleaning since Sir Robert's father died.

"Oh!" The Doctor grinned, beginning to understand. "Fantastic!"

"Your Majesty, this house is a trap for you. Closest manor house to the monastery—easiest place to transport the Wolf to. Sir Robert's father was a close friend of your late husband, so you'd never suspect that your weren't safe here. But Sir Robert's father had spoken with the Wolf." She pointed at the man. "You said he learned it's purpose?"

Sir Robert nodded. "That's what he told me."

"Then he knew. And, as a loyal subject of the Crown as well as a friend of the Prince Consort, he told Prince Albert. And they planned."

"Planned what, Mrs. McCrimmon?"

"To set a trap in the trap. One for the Wolf."

A shower of plaster dust made them all look up. The Wolf had climbed up onto the glass dome.

The glass cracked.

"Well, Your Majesty, I do hope you are well rested, as it seems it's time to run again."

"Run!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and the group ran for the door and began pulling the furniture out of the way.

The Wolf broke through the glass, landing on the desk where they had all been standing moments before.

As soon as the door was opened, the Guardian shoved Queen Victoria into the hall first. "Get to the observatory, Ma'am!"

The Guardian turned and rapidly fired four shots before slamming the doors shut and fleeing down the hall after everyone else.

Behind her, she heard the Wolf pull open the doors and advance quickly behind her. She ran as fast as she could, knowing that if she turned the Wolf would have her in a moment.

In front of her, she could see the Doctor look back, panic written in his expression.

 _'Run, Amadahy!'_

His voice distracted her for just a moment, but it was enough. She tripped on a carpet. With a quick crouch, she was able to turn the fall into a roll and jump up to her feet, not that it mattered. She closed her eyes and waited for the Wolf's claws.

There was a splash of water.

Pained growls followed.

The Guardian opened her eyes to see the Wolf stumbling away. She looked to the side. Lady Isobel and the maids stood there.

"Good shot." She remarked, just before familiar, possessive hands grabbed her waist and spun her around. Her husband's lips fiercely claimed hers.

 _'Now I nearly lost you.'_

 _'But we're all alright. Which is more than I can say for the queen if we don't stop that Wolf.'_ The Guardian pulled away from the Doctor. She looked over at one of the maids, since Lady Isobel and Sir Robert were talking. "Mistletoe?"

The girl nodded.

"Right." The Doctor nodded. "To the observatory."

Sir Robert kissed his wife once more, his hands briefly falling to her stomach. The Guardian felt a slight jolt when she saw Lady Isobel touch her stomach also.

It wasn't just Lady Isobel that Sir Robert was protecting, it was his child also.

Lady Isobel hurried past the Guardian with tears in her eyes.

"Lady Isobel," she called softly.

The woman glanced back at her.

"I'll make sure he remains safe."

The younger woman smiled slightly and nodded. Then she turned to the maids. "Girls, come with me. Down the back stairs, back the kitchens. Quickly!"

Sir Robert watched his wife go sadly, like he thought he'd never see her again. "The observatory's this way." He said to the Doctor and the Guardian after a moment.

The group hurried down the hall and up one more flight of stairs.

The Doctor stopped just outside the door. "No mistletoe in these doors. Your father wanted the Wolf to get inside. I need time, though. Is there any way of barricading this?"

The Guardian pushed the queen through the doors.

"Just do your work, and I'll defend it." Sir Robert replied.

That would mean he would be out here when the Wolf came. "No," the Guardian broke in firmly. "Doctor, get started. Sir Robert, I promised your wife that I would ensure you remained safe, and I intend to do so. I will defend the door."

"No!" the Doctor shouted, at the same time that Sir Robert spoke, "Mrs. McCrimmon, I am not a coward who will let a woman do my task. I betrayed my Queen, now I will defend her with my life, so that my wife and child will remember me with honor."

The Guardian sighed, frustrated. "Doctor, you're wasting precious time. Sir Robert, your child won't remember you at all. Now get inside and defend the queen. I've got a lot more combat experience than you."

Sir Robert looked doubtful, so she just shoved him through the doors and pulled them shut. She faced away from them and took a deep breath, one by one tuning her senses to focus on what was in front of her, and blocking out any thoughts of what was going on in the room at her back, including the Doctor's telepathic protests.

She heard the Wolf bounding up the stairs. A moment later, it appeared. The Guardian raised her gun and began firing. The animal fell back at the first few shots, then it seemed to learn how to ignore them as it advanced.

The Guardian didn't dare stop her firing to power the gun up higher.

The Wolf batted the gun out of her hands, throwing it against the wall. The Guardian fell back against the doors, waiting to die for the second time that night.

She suddenly found herself pulled backwards. She stumbled a little, backing further into the room as she regained her balance.

Sir Robert slammed the doors shut and pushed against them, trying to keep them closed.

 _'Ready yet, Eltanin?'_

 _'Almost!'_

The Guardian joined Sir Robert at the doors, bracing them against the Wolf's beatings. "Your Majesty, get to the other side of the room!"

"Now!" The Doctor shouted as the light chamber powered up, glowing with moonlight.

The Guardian grabbed Sir Robert's arm and pulled him out of the way.

The Doctor slid the diamond across the floor. It caught in the spot where the magnified light hit the floor, refracting the light back upwards and magnifying it even more.

The Wolf broke though and was almost immediately caught up in the powerful light beam. It was lifted several feet in the air, arms spread as though it was being crucified.

The Guardian watched in horror as it turned back into the form of a very young man. He looked down, directly at her.

"Make it brighter. Let me go."

The Guardian stared at him sadly, her hand absently drifting to her stomach. One of her own children was a boy. This young man was someone's son once, before the werewolf carved out everything he was and everything he could have been in order to make room for itself.

"Please, my sister. Free me from my master."

Something snapped in the Guardian's mind and she nodded once, stiffly. She walked over to the light chamber and adjusted the magnification. The young man morphed back into the shape of a wolf. With a howl, he vanished. The light beam disappeared with him.

The Guardian released a breath, nearly collapsing into the Doctor's arms. He wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his jumper. _'He was just a boy, Eltanin. And that thing destroyed him.'_

 _'I know.'_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The next morning, the Doctor and the Guardian knelt before the queen with the remaining Torchwood estate household watching. The Doctor held the Guardian's hand gently, as though he feared disturbing the bandage covering a cut that she had received when the Wolf disarmed her.

The Guardian bowed her head to hide her slight smile as she remembered the Doctor's panic when he noticed the wound, thinking that she had been bitten. It took reminding him that Gallifreyan DNA and the werewolf's DNA were incompatible for him to calm down.

Queen Victoria held up her sword. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee, Sir Doctor of TARDIS." The tip of the sword touched the Doctor's right shoulder, then his left. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee, Dame Guardian of TARDIS."

The Guardian flinched when the sword tip touched her own shoulders, not liking having a sword so close to her neck.

"You may stand." The Queen finished.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The Gallifreyans stood.

"Your Majesty," the Doctor said. "About last night—I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now, from beyond the grave."

The Guardian saw a tiny bit of softening around the woman's mouth before she spoke. "Indeed. Then you may think on this also: that I am not amused."

The Doctor groaned, mentally swearing in Gallifreyan.

 _'Seems like I win. And don't use that sort of language around Jacob and_ _Astrid_ _.'_ The Guardian teased, but she only allowed a small smirk to show.

"Not remotely amused," the queen continued. "And henceforth, I banish you both."

The Guardian raised one eyebrow, not entirely surprised, but it took the Doctor a moment. "I'm sorry?"

"I rewarded you, Sir Doctor, and now you are exiled from this empire, never to return."

 _'When's our next visit?'_ The Guardian teased again. This Victoria severely underestimated them if she thought words were enough to keep them away.

The Doctor merely stared at Queen Victoria in shock.

The Queen stepped forward, glaring at them each in turn. "I don't know what you are, the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. You, Dame Guardian, claim knowledge that no woman should possess. Your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death, and I will not allow it.

"You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good, and how much longer you will survive this terrible life."

She stepped back again. "Now leave my world, and never return."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Thanks, Dougal!" The Doctor called to the man who had given them a ride to the TARDIS on the back of his hay wagon.

They got off and walked the rest of the distance to the TARDIS. Once inside the TARDIS, the Doctor began flipping switches to make it dematerialize.

 _"Was it worth it?"_ The Guardian asked quietly. _"Worth that boy's death?"_

 _"He was dead a long time ago, Amadahy."_

The Guardian shook her head. _"I know that. It's just… we're having a boy. And it makes me afraid—what if someone steals them away from us? We're the last Gallifreyans left in the Universe. There are races out there who would tear worlds apart for just one of our cells."_

A tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away. _"I have a family for the first time since I was eight years old and I couldn't bear to lose them or you."_

The Doctor hurried over and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest, and she felt him rest his chin on the top of her head. _"I would die before I let anyone hurt you or the twins. I promise you, we will keep them safe."_

The Guardian nodded, even as she couldn't stop the feeling of dread rising up inside of her. Nightmares had plagued her the last few nights. Dreams filled with golden light and fear and despair.

Dreams where her children were torn from her arms.

A storm was coming, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Oooo! The Wolf called the Guardian "my sister"! Whatever does this mean?**

 **And what is with the Guardian's dreams?**

 **Yes, I did add Lady Isobel's pregnancy. I have always felt rather bad for Sir Robert. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place, with really no choice but to commit treason, and then he sacrifices his life in some twisted attempt to regain his honor. I knew that I wanted the Guardian to save him, but I also knew that she would need a very good reason to put herself and her children at risk to protect a human.**

 **Next time—well, as you've probably figured out due to Rose's absence, I didn't plan on doing a version of Father's Day. Well, I had a brainstorm about how to work the idea in. So next chapter will be "Father's Day"—or will it be?**


	12. Chapter 12: Amadahy's Day

**I don't own Doctor Who. Sadly. But I own all the original characters you see in this episode.**

 **Also, just for this episode, I'm not italicizing when the Doctor and the Guardian speak in Gallifreyan (since that'd be the entire episode—spoilers!).**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _Deep in the heart of the TARDIS, a cloud of psychic pollen stirred, a few spores being carried up into the main levels of the time machine..._

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Alright, this time we are going to make it to Poosh." The Doctor said, flipping switches at random just like always.

The Guardian smirked. "Of course we are. Because I'm going to be the one flying her."

"I can do this!"

"Past evidence indicates otherwise."

He glared weakly at her. "Third time's the charm."

The Guardian frowned. "You know, I never understood that human phrase. The third time you try something usually tends to be the worst.

"Oi!" The Doctor leaned slightly to look at her across the console. The Guardian used his distraction to press a button that would erase whatever random commands he just gave the poor TARDIS.

Suddenly, as if the old time machine was reacting to the Guardian's touch, the unit exploded and everything jolted, throwing the two pilots into the air. The Guardian landed on her back and immediately rolled over to grab the floor grating as the TARDIS continued to shake and flip around.

A horrible grinding noise filled the room, far worse than the noise the time machine made when the Doctor left the brakes on. Dark gray smoke filled the room.

What the hell was happening?

The Guardian crawled over to the console unit, using her grip on the grating to keep herself from being thrown further away. She reached for the lever underneath, the emergency brake.

It sparked, forcing her to pull her hand away. She tried to touch it again, only for the same thing to happen. The third time, the console exploded, the force of it making her lose her grip on the grating and roll away. She caught herself just before she rolled off the platform.

She saw the Doctor pull himself to his feet using the console. He typed in a few commands and the TARDIS suddenly landed with an enormous thud. The room when completely dark. The Guardian closed her eyes, trying to pretend that she wasn't surrounded by darkness.

When she opened them a moment later, the emergency lights had come on. The Guardian stood slowly, using the railing to steady herself at first. On shaking legs she hurried over to the Doctor, wrapping her arms around his waist as he wrapped his arms around her.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. You?"

She nodded. "What the hell just happened?"

"No idea. And the scanner isn't working, so I don't even know where we are."

The Guardian pulled away from him to look over the damaged console. "Well, we can't take off on emergency power, and all the other rooms would be sealed off and life support cut. There's nothing we can do except look outside and hope we're someplace friendly, where we can get the parts needed to fix her."

"Alright then." The Doctor walked over to the doors and opened one.

The Guardian saw him stiffen before he stepped outside. "What is it?" She called, then hurried after him.

They had landed in a city, one that looked just like any other futuristic city. But…

Hundreds of people hurried back and forth through the streets, wearing long robes of multiple colors. Many of their heads and shoulders were covered by a bronze hat-like thing, one that the Guardian knew well.

But that was impossible.

Absolutely….

She looked up, past the tall spires and the clear dome at the burnt orange sky. She could see one sun clearly, and just make out another one through the buildings.

Her hand found the Doctor's.

They were on Gallifrey.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

An hour later, they sat in the console room, having tried everything they could think of to get the TARDIS working again.

It was impossible for them to be back on Gallifrey.

When the Doctor had Time Locked the planet, its entire history had been locked away as well. It should have been as though the planet never existed other than in legends and their memories.

So how the hell did the TARDIS manage to break through the Time Lock?

The Guardian tossed down her welding tool. "That's it. There's nothing else I can think of." She touched the time rotor. "She's dying."

"There must be something!" The Doctor snapped. She had noticed him getting steadily more upset as the hour wore on, so his outburst didn't surprise her.

"There is nothing, Eltanin."

"We can't be stuck here, Amadahy!" He paced the platform.

"Well, there is always the option of stealing another TARDIS," the Guardian quipped. Her teasing smile immediately died. Abandon this TARDIS—their home?

Never. Surely there was something they could do.

The Guardian hurried out the doors. This was Gallifrey, birthplace of the TARDIS. Perhaps there was someone here who could do something. They never needed to know where the Doctor and the Guardian were from.

They would never need to know what the future had in store for Gallifrey.

"Amadahy!" The Doctor followed her.

The Guardian looked around, trying to get her bearings. She was certain this was Arcadia, though not a place she had gone very often. It was vaguely familiar…

Just then, she caught sight of a very familiar woman in deep blue robes, carrying an armful of books in one arm and pushing her spectacles back up her nose with the other hand. She wasn't wearing one of the hats, so her insanely curly red hair was free and unstyled, something that Gallifreyan society frowned upon.

"No..." The Guardian recognized where she was now.

And when she was.

She spun around to see the TARDIS doors slammed shut on their own. "No!" The Guardian cried and tried to open the door.

It was locked.

"Please!" Tears were freely streaming down her face as she pounded her fist against the doors. "Please, don't make me see this! Don't make me watch!"

She vaguely heard the Doctor calling her name, and she felt his hands on her shoulders, but she fought against him to stay beside the doors. "Please, let me in!" She begged the machine.

She couldn't be here.

There was no way she could bear to watch her mother die.

The Guardian knew the story well, even though she had been only five years old. The death of one's only loving parent was something one could never forget.

A transport was going to come out of nowhere, just as her mother was crossing the street. The angle would be just right to break her back and her neck. She was dead before regeneration could set in.

The Scholar had died in her first incarnation, leaving her daughter to suffer through over four hundred regenerations.

Something shifted in the Guardian. No. Just this once, the Universe owed her.

She stood and turned back to the street, easily finding the red-haired woman.

"Amadahy, whatever you are planning on doing, don't do it."

The Guardian ignored the Doctor. She saw the transport appear, just as her mother glanced down to look at the books in her hand. The Scholar shook her head, then started across the street in the direction of the Great Library.

The Guardian ran, pushing her way through the streets, using every one of her skills to get there in time. She dashed in front of the transport vehicle, hooked her arm around her mother's waist and dragged the woman out of the way just in time. The transporter brushed her heel as the Guardian and the Scholar fell to the walkway in a heap.

"What?" The Scholar looked around, feeling the ground for her spectacles.

The Guardian picked them up and handed them back to the woman. "Here."

The Scholar put them on and blinked. She looked so young, younger than the Guardian had remembered her as. It was hard to believe that she had five children, three of them in the Academy. Then again, everyone looked older than they really were to a child.

303.

That's how old her mother was.

Or how _young_ she was, compared to the Guardian's 1,594—no matter what the Doctor said. She was more than five times as old as her mother ever had been.

Until now. The Guardian smiled. "Well, that was close."

The Scholar laughed—that low, gentle laugh that the Guardian remembered so clearly. "Yes, it was. Thank you so much. I just realized that I forgot my book on Three-Dimensional Euclidean Geometry at the Library. My daughter wanted me to teach her a little."

"Your daughter?" The Guardian asked. Neither of her sisters had been on holiday when their mother died, so why…

The Scholar smiled proudly. "Yes, my little Amadahy. Only five years old and she's fascinated by everything. I think she's going to become one of the Inspired. Her professors are going to be rather cross with me when she enters the Academy, but I can't stand the idea of her mind going to waste just because the High Council refused my application for her early admission."

"Why ever would they do that?" The Guardian asked absently. She didn't remember her mother teaching her mathematics. Nor did she recall any mention of an early admission into the Academy.

"My husband." She smiled tensely. "He and the High Council don't always see eye-to-eye. Only he's vocal about it."

The Guardian smiled. "Sounds much like my husband." She glanced behind her to see him leaning against the TARDIS. Her smile faltered at the disapproval in his eyes. So he had figured out what she had just done.

The Scholar's eyes widened. "Sorry. I'm the Scholar, of the House of Pelldown."

"The Guardian. Of..." She couldn't say Lungbarrow, as they were such a powerful house that the Doctor's connection would be figured out quickly. Nor could she say Pelldown for similar reasons. "...Oakdown."

The two women realized at the same that they were still sitting on the ground, and they helped each other up.

"How about you and your husband come to my house?" The Scholar asked. "I'd love for my family to meet the woman who saved my life."

The Guardian shook her head reluctantly. "No, we are just passing through. Our TARDIS has been giving us problems, so we need to find the parts to fix her soon."

The Scholar grinned. "I have a friend who is very good with TARDISes. He's been working on them for centuries. Maybe he could help?"

The Guardian blinked, surprised for a moment, before she realized there were a lot of things about her mother that she didn't know. But maybe now her younger self would have a chance to learn more about the woman.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

After saying good-bye to the Scholar and receiving an invitation to visit her family if she had time, the Guardian made her away back over to the Doctor, who had gone back inside the now-unlocked TARDIS.

"She is sending a friend who might be able to help us fix the TARDIS." The Guardian told the Doctor as soon as she shut the doors behind her.

"So she's your mother." The Doctor said, not looking at her.

"Yes," the Guardian replied. His mental shields were up high enough that she couldn't even sense stray thoughts from him.

"Your mother who died when you were five years old?"

Oh, he was not going to go there with her. "Need I remind you that your TARDIS locked me out, forcing me to watch? I was hardly going to let my mother die!"

"You could have turned to me for help!" The Doctor shouted back, finally looking at her. The coldness in his eyes shocked her. "That seems to be a thing with you—you'd rather deal with things on your own than look to someone else for help."

"I ask you for help all the time!"

"But not emotional things—those you'd rather deal with alone."

"Like what?" The Guardian snapped.

"You ran away from me after you told Nancy about Kateri. You told Sarah Jane that you were pregnant before you told me. I seem to be the last one to know about anything going on in your life emotionally."

"So that's your problem? That I'm not open enough for you emotionally?" The Guardian laughed bitterly. "Well, forgive me for having issues expressing my emotions after three hundred years of being _beaten to death_ for doing such a thing."

It was like the Doctor didn't even hear her. "And now you just changed your own personal history!"

"I saved my mother from dying. It's not like I abducted my past self from the High Council's training facility!"

"You may very well have done just that—for all you know, your mother might stop your father from handing you over to the High Council." He began pacing.

"And then perhaps I might grow up to be a happier, less emotionally-stunted person. I thought that you would appreciate that."

The Doctor glared at her. "Do you have any idea of what you've—no, wait, you wouldn't. After all, how could you? You didn't go to the Academy."

The Guardian winced at the derision in his tone. Surely he couldn't think that she was so very inferior just because she hadn't gone to the Academy? "And what would the Academy have taught me about time that you haven't already taught me?"

"The consequences of changing it!"

The Guardian's jaw tightened. "Oh, right, so I should have just let my mother die so time would remain the same? How many people have you saved? Isn't that changing time?"

"I know what I'm doing," the Doctor replied coldly.

She scoffed. "So nearly allying yourself with the Krillitanes to crack the Skasis Paradigm was knowing what you're doing? What happened to the man who was proud of me for saving Sir Robert MacLeish?"

"Starting to wonder if this wasn't your plan all along." He responded flatly.

"What?" The Guardian frowned, confused.

"When did you first think of it—that you could use a time machine to go back and save yourself from three hundred years of torture?"

Surely he couldn't be suggesting… "If I wanted a time machine to do that, why would I need you? I have the skills to steal a TARDIS of my own."

"Maybe there's just more of the Weapon in you than I thought—the sadistic killing machine who delights in destroying lives." He stepped closer to her, getting in her face as he practically spat the words.

She slapped him before she could stop herself. "Don't you dare! I hated every moment that I was the Weapon, just like you hated being the Warrior! Don't ever say that I took delight in what I did! You have no idea what I felt when I looked over the massacres that I committed when I was her!"

"Pride?" He spat.

She backed away, towards the doors.

"Superiority?"

Tears burned her eyes as she opened the doors.

"Satisfaction?"

She ran out into the street. Anything to get away from her husband shouting accusations against her. It was almost like he had somehow heard the dark voices in her nightmares, the ones that told her she enjoyed being the Weapon, being the one in control for once in her life.

What was worst, there was a time in her life where it had been true.

The first Weapon, the one she tried to forget about, had been everything that the Doctor had just described.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

It wasn't too difficult to find the way to her family's house from the TARDIS, now that the Guardian was starting to remember the time after her mother's death.

Since Time Lord bodies were burned to prevent any of their DNA from ending up in the wrong hands, only the very important Time Lords and Ladies had graves. Thus, it was a customary part of grieving to visit to location of the loved one's death. Even at only five years old, Amadahy had walked that stretch of Gallifrey between her house and the location of her mother's death many times. Sometimes with family. Sometimes alone.

She stopped in front of the tower-like building that housed the Arcadian branch of the House of Pelldown. The house was still in its glory days, unlike it had been when she had passed it during the War. Then, it had been empty and decaying, a sign that the House of Pelldown was near extinction, with all the heirs married away or dead.

The door opened and the Scholar hurried out, still in her blue robes. "Guardian? How ever did you find us?"

"I asked around," she lied. "Someone was kind enough to give me directions."

"Well, then, come in." The Scholar smiled and gestured inside.

The Guardian followed her mother into the familiar foyer. She looked around, seeing just how luxurious the house was for the first time. As a child, it had been normal for her, but now, as an adult, she realized that her family actually had been quite wealthy.

"Where is your husband?" The Scholar asked.

"He stay behind, working on our TARDIS." The Guardian hid her tears by pretending to be distracted by a vase. She seemed to recall her brother had accidentally knocked over and shattered that vase when they were 7.

Speaking of her brother… She heard a loud, rapid stumping of feet. A moment later, a dark-haired boy who seemed too small to have made so much noise appeared. "Maiteria!" He threw himself at her skirts. He was soon followed by a little girl with bright blue eyes and hair just like the Scholar's, only the little girl's was blonde.

The Guardian's breath caught.

"Hello, to you too, Chu'a." The Scholar laughed, hugging the boy. The little girl hurried into her mother's embrace. "Hello, Amadahy. Now, children, we have a guest. So how about you go get cleaned up." She wiped a bit of dirt off her son's face.

The boy glanced at the Guardian and ran off, his sister following him. The Scholar laughed. "Forgive my son. He can be very enthusiastic at times. My daughter is much quieter, as you saw, but she can be just as bad when you ask her about something that she's interested in." She smiled fondly in the direction that her children disappeared.

"I like enthusiasm." The Guardian replied. "And passion. Gallifreyan culture could use some more life to it."

The Scholar nodded. "I quite agree."

The door suddenly burst open. The Doctor walked in. He looked at the Guardian. "We've got problems."

"What sort of problems?"

There was a scream outside. The Guardian pushed past the Doctor, and ran outside. Dozens of black creatures that looked like a cross between an Earth praying mantis and a dragon swarmed around. One of them dove for a Time Lord out in the open, landing on him. A moment later, it rejoined the others, now no sign of the attacked Time Lord.

"Get back inside!" The Scholar shouted, grabbing the Guardian's arm and pulling her into the house.

"What the hell are those things?" The Guardian asked.

The Doctor ignored her. "How old is that door?" He asked the Scholar.

"Old enough. It should keep them at bay for a while."

"Is anyone going to answer me?" The Guardian nearly shouted.

The Doctor turned to her, his eyes filled with fury. "That is what happens when you mess with time without a damn for the consequences."

The Scholar also looked at her. "They're called Reapers," she explained gently. "They come when there has been a wound in time. Right now, they're trying to cleanse that wound."

"By devouring everyone in sight?" The Guardian winced as she heard another scream.

"Everyone. Everything. They're not going to stop until time is either put right, or the whole world is dead." The Doctor replied with a glare in her direction.

"No." She snapped back, responding to his unspoken comment. She couldn't lose her mother now. Not after all this.

The Scholar, who had moved over to the window, suddenly screamed. The Guardian hurried to join her, just in time to see a Reaper attack her father, the Outlaw. She placed her hands on the shoulders of her now-sobbing mother. Her father may have been terrible to her, but he and her mother had been deeply in love.

The Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled her into a side room, muttering "excuse me" to the Scholar.

The Guardian wrenched her arm free. "Was that really necessary? She is distraught."

"Yep. Because her husband just died. Because _you_ had to save her."

"Oh, so this is all my fault?"

The Doctor pretended to think. "Let me see… yes!"

The Guardian took a deep breath. "There must be something we can do."

"Yes. Your mother can die."

Without thinking, the Guardian slapped him. "Don't bring that up every again! You're the 'expert'. Find something that we can do to save the world, without killing my mother."

"Nope." The Doctor replied, walking towards the door. "You started this. You find a way to save your mother." He left the room, the Guardian following him. To her shock, he went directly to the front door and walked right out.

She screamed when he was attacked by a Reaper.

What had she done? Had she made her husband hate her so much that he was willing to die, rather than be with her any longer?

She stumbled over to the Scholar, who had been joined by her two small children.

The Guardian looked away from her past self. It seemed that she was going to have to make a choice—her mother, or all of Gallifrey.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"What was the wound to time?" The Scholar asked quietly.

The Guardian looked up. It had been nearly an hour since the Doctor had walked away from her and died. The Reapers were still outside, like they knew where the Guardian and the Scholar were. Mercifully, the children had fallen asleep.

"Guardian?" Her mother's voice startled her.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter."

The Scholar breathed a scoff. "Well, clearly that's not true. Otherwise, the Reapers wouldn't be here."

Silence stretched between the two women when the Guardian refused to answer. What could she say? She had spent the last hour trying to come up with an alternate solution. But she had nothing. She didn't know enough about time to find a loophole.

"You're my Amadahy from the future, aren't you?"

The Guardian looked up in surprise. "How did you—"

The Scholar looked away. "I overheard some of your fight with your husband. I was supposed to die, wasn't I?"

"Yes." The Guardian swallowed. "We didn't intend to be where we were. Something went wrong with our TARDIS. I tried to let things happen as I knew they did, but the TARDIS locked its doors. And I couldn't bear—" She broke off.

The Scholar rose and moved over to kneel in front of the Guardian. "My passionate Amadahy." She placed her hands on either side of the Guardian's face. "You are so beautiful."

The Guardian looked down, tears filling her eyes. "I miss you so much, Maiteria."

"Moreso now, I imagine." She gestured to the Guardian's stomach.

The Guardian glanced up in surprise.

Her mother laughed quietly. "Oh, darling. Of course I can tell. I've been pregnant four times. So tell me about my grandchild."

The Guardian smiled, feeling her tears slip down her cheeks. "Grandchildren. A boy and a girl."

"Like you and Chu'a."

"My husband was a twin also, except he had a brother." The Guardian tore her thoughts away from the Doctor. "I'm due in a little over two months. We were so looking forward to them." She glanced out the window. She saw one of the Reapers dive down for a moment. "It seems the Universe has other plans."

Her mother gave her a sad look and stood. She walked over to her sleeping children. She gave each a kiss and whispered something in their ear. Then she came back over to the Guardian.

"I can't let you do this," she protested, realizing what her mother was planning.

"I'm not giving you a choice, Amadahy." Her mother shook her head. "Time should repair itself as soon as I die. In theory, everyone who died should return, including your father and your husband."

"But you'll be dead." The Guardian whispered, her tears flowing again.

"And you'll live. Darling, I wasn't there to teach you how to be a mother, but if this is the only parenting advice I can give, then it's worth it: no sacrifice is too big if it gives your children a future."

"I would have destroyed Gallifrey to save you, Maiteria."

Her mother smiled sadly. "I know that, because you're my passionate Amadahy. But because I'm your mother, I can't let you have that on your conscience." Her mother kissed her forehead. "I love you, Amadahy. And I am so proud of the woman you've become."

She went to the door and disappeared without a glance back. The Guardian watched through the window until she could no longer see her mother.

A few minutes later, the Guardian heard her past-self and her brother scream in their sleep. She closed her eyes and let the tears continue to stream freely. Her mother was dead all over again.

 _Thud!_

She opened her eyes and looked out the window. The Reapers were still out there, and one was pounding on the door.

 _Thud!_

The Guardian sat down. Time should have healed itself. What was wrong? Why wasn't anyone coming back? Unless… she dropped her head in her hands.

The Reapers weren't just trying to heal the rupture. They were trying to stop what caused it. They wanted her dead too.

Her husband. Her mother. Now her and her children.

Numbly, she stood and walked to the door. She stepped outside, and barely noticed as one of the Reapers attacked her.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian found herself in a blindingly white room. A moment later, the lights turned off, plunging her into total darkness. She couldn't control her scream.

The lights turned back on, blinding her again.

Then it was dark again.

Light.

Dark.

Light.

Dark.

The Guardian curled up on the floor that was alternating between cold and hot. She knew exactly where she was. She was back in her cell on Gallifrey. When she had been only 100 years old, her instructors had left her in there for over a year, never allowing her interaction with another living creature, while they taught her eyes to adjust to light changes faster and her body to handle rapid temperature changes.

In the end, she had lost her mind and they had to force two regenerations on her just to get her back to a semi-normal state.

"Stop!" She cried, holding her head. "Please, stop!"

Light.

Dark.

Light.

Dark.

"For the love of Gallifrey, stop!"

Light.

Dark.

Light.

Dark.

 _No more._ She sat up suddenly, a horrifyingly familiar sensation rising in her. She rose to her feet effortlessly and strode over to the door.

"Let me out, or I swear I will kill you and your entire family." She spoke coldly, flatly.

She was unsurprised when the door buzzed and opened. Even the strongest warriors of the Time Lords had been terrified of the Weapon.

The Guardian stepped out of the cell, only to find herself in her old training room. She frowned a tiny bit, glancing behind her. Her cell had not opened into the training room. When had that changed?

She heard movement on the other side of the darkened room. She pulled out one of her guns. "Show yourself."

"Put that away." A confident, familiar voice rang across the enormous room, just before a woman stepped into the light from the cell. "You could never hurt me."

The Guardian dropped her gun.

The woman smirked. Her blood-red lips made her skin look as pale as a dead woman's. Her platinum-colored hair was pulled up in a tight bun; her eyes the color of ice. Her tightly cut black uniform only served to make her features look even more pale.

The Guardian knew her. Only too well.

This was the first Weapon.

Her worst incarnation.

The one that she could have described as purely evil.

Even the incarnation that followed her, the second Weapon, had possessed some amount of conscience and emotion. But this one… born of more torture and the pain from Doctor's abandonment when he fled from the Time War—she had enjoyed killing. Anything to strike out against the Doctor. To punish him for abandoning her to the War.

This woman truly was the perfect psychopath.

"Did you enjoy it?" The Weapon asked, still smirking.

"Enjoy what?"

"Being me." She moved closer, slowly, like a ghostly panther. "Threatening to murder an entire family if you weren't let out of your cage."

"I did what I had to." The Guardian replied, stepping back. "You know as well as I do what happened the last time I was in that cell."

The Weapon chuckled mockingly. "Oh, yes. You became me. How interesting that you should become me again to get out."

"I did not become you."

The Weapon breathed another mocking laugh. "Perhaps you're right. Look at you. The little girl who thought she could mess with time. Are you proud of yourself?"

"Of course not." The Guardian snapped. Her mother was dead. So was her husband. What was there to be proud of?

"At least I did what I did to protect Gallifrey. And then you had to go destroy all my hard work. Tsk. Tsk."

"You didn't murder so many innocent people because you wanted to protect Gallifrey," the Guardian spat. "You enjoyed it."

The Weapon smirked again. "Perhaps I did. But don't tell me you didn't enjoy having the power to completely destroy Gallifrey in your hands." She slipped up beside the Guardian and whispered in her ear, "You can't lie to me. I am you, after all."

The Guardian recoiled.

"You can never hid anything from me, _Guardian_. I know you better than you know yourself. Oh, how you hate playing the perfect little wife of that man, the _Doctor_." She spat his name.

The Guardian whirled around. "I'm happy for the first time in my life!"

"Really? You? Happy as a wife and a mother? That's not the life for someone like us, and you know it. We should be joining the Sontarans in battle. Or maybe even the Papal Mainframe. Those self-righteous saints do love a good bloodbath."

"No." The Guardian replied. "I belong where I am."

"Perhaps. But just remember that I could easily steal all of that away from you." Suddenly, before the Guardian could block her, the Weapon kicked her in the stomach.

She fell to her knees, crying out in pain. She gripped her stomach, her eyes widening as she realized just what the Weapon had done. She could feel it in her mind.

Her children were dead.

"Dead husband, dead children, dead Guardian," the Weapon chanted. She pulled one of her guns out of the holder on her left hip. "Dead husband, dead children, dead Guardian." She leaned down to whisper in the Guardian's ear again. "I told you I could steal it all away from you."

Then she leveled her gun at the Guardian's temple and fired.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian awoke with a scream. She was sitting up in bed, her gun out and pointed into the darkness. Her hearts pounded, and she could barely breathe. She snapped the fingers of her free hand, turning the lights on.

There was no one in the room besides her and the Doctor.

Nevertheless, her hearts continued to beat three times as fast as they should. She struggled to take a deep breath.

"Amadahy," the Doctor said quietly.

He sat up slowly and placed his hands around hers. Her grip loosened on the gun, and she allowed him to take it. She heard him place it on the table beside the bed before he pulled her against him, her back to his chest, his arms wrapped around her waist.

Feeling his breath on her shoulder and neck helped her calm down, as did sensing the twins nudging her mind to remind her that they were still there. Her hearts-rate and breathing normalized.

She started sobbing as she remembered the details of her dream. Every vivid, painful detail flashed through her memory all over again.

"It was just a dream, Amadahy. We're safe in the TARDIS, far away from Gallifrey."

She flinched. He had seen it all, hadn't he?

Of course he had. Ever since they had bonded completely, they often shared dreams. Usually, those dreamed tended to be of a more pleasant variety. Rarely ever did they share nightmares, mostly because their mental walls would go up very quickly at the first sign of a nightmare, even in their sleep.

Normally, Gallifreyans could tell the difference between a dream and reality. So why hadn't she been able to sense the difference this time?

For the love of Clom, they had been back on _Gallifrey_. That alone should have told her something was wrong.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that." She whispered. As it had been her dream, he would have had no control over what his dream self did. He had been forced to watch himself choose to die rather than remain with her.

His hand stilled where it had been gently stroking her stomach. She realized that he had connected with the twins, trying to reassure them. Of course. They had been pulled along into her nightmare too.

"There's nothing to forgive, Amadahy. It was a dream. You couldn't control it anymore than I could."

"But what I did..." She squeezed her eyes shut, grateful that he was behind her and couldn't see her tears. "Eltanin, if I had had the choice, I don't know if I would have done it differently." She had realized it when they were in 1941. If she had the power to save her mother, then she would. Damn the future. "I don't know if I really would be able to let my mother die."

His arms tightened around her. "And I would be there with you every moment." He kissed the side of her head, then whispered. "I would never leave you, Amadahy."

She flinched, remembering the dream version of him walking right into the Reaper's attack. "You can't promise that."

"Yes, I can." He insisted.

"Maybe _you_ can. But you will one day regenerate. It's basically a guarantee with you."

She felt more than heard him chuckle.

"And one day, when you change, everything about you will change. You'll be a totally different man. You may not even love me any more."

"Amadahy—"

"You've seen how much I can change from regeneration to regeneration," she interrupted. "We can't control what we become. You may find yourself becoming a man who couldn't stand a soldier wife."

"Everything you did was in the name of peace and sanity."

"But not in the name of the Guardian." She sighed. "I suppose I do have one regret—I should have kept my chosen name. I was the one who originally changed it to the Weapon, you know."

He nodded. She had shown him that when they were married.

"She was so very different from who I had been before, the name change fit. But when she died, I should have fought to become the Guardian again. The woman most of the Universe remembers the Weapon as—she did the best she could. I never should have let her actions be tied to those of a psychopathic murderer."

"Then stop calling her 'the Weapon'," he whispered. "Call her 'the Guardian'."

A slow smile appeared. She could do that. At least in her own mind, she could stop the Ultimate Psychopath from ruining her War-self's actions.

"She's a liar." The Guardian said suddenly, remembering something else the Weapon had tried to ruin.

"Hm?"

"When she said that I wasn't happy with you."

"I know."

The Guardian shifted to see the Doctor's knowing smirk. "You!" She playfully shoved him back again the pillows, the terror of her nightmare temporarily forgotten as she focused on the Doctor's smug attitude.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian found herself in the library, just glancing over the titles. After a couple of days, most of the effects of her nightmare had worn off, or she had at least been able to push it aside.

But a few things had stayed, one of them being the idea of her mother teaching her a few Academy subjects. She had no memories to prove it, so why did her mind bring that up?

She noticed a book on Euclidean geometry and reached up to grab it, just as the Doctor wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"I found something." He whispered in her ear.

He held out a hand in front of them. Several tiny white balls lay on his palm.

"What are they?" She asked, frowning.

"Your nightmare."

She twisted around to face him, now confused. How could a few white balls be her nightmare?

"Psychic pollen." He explained. "I found them in the vents to your training room. This particular type feeds on the fears of a victim, magnifies them and turns it against them. We must have picked some up during our travels, carried the spores in."

The Guardian blinked. "So all that was the result of a few specks that I breathed in?" Could that have been the cause of all the nightmares she had been suffering recently? Not just the last one?

"I hope not all of it. I happen to hope that our daughter looks like you did as a child." The Doctor grinned at her, but then it faded. "It's a bit unusual, though. I'm not sure how the pollen ended up getting into those particular vents. There were thousands other places that would have been more likely."

That familiar feeling of a coming storm returned. The Guardian forced a smile. "Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out." She kissed him, pushing her concerns to the back of her mind. "But I wanted to do some reading."

"Euclidean geometry?" He smirked and reached for the book, not having to strain himself at all, like she had.

She pouted a little and accepted the book.

They ended up sitting together in a chair beside the fireplace, as the Doctor insisted on staying nearby to help explain anything she didn't understand completely, as it was a rather advanced subject.

To their surprise, she needed very little help. The information seemed almost familiar, like she had learned it a long time ago.

She smiled. Perhaps her mother really had taught her some things before she died.

And maybe, if her dream had been right about that at least, then perhaps it had been right about how proud her mother had been and would have been of her.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Now, what did you think of my version of "Father's Day"? You may have guessed, but I got the idea from a thought the Guardian had in "The Doctor Dances", when she notes that she would have destroyed Gallifrey to save her mother. Add psychic pollen, and there you go!**

 **I hope the Doctor and the Guardian's conversation when she woke up made sense. If not, I'd be happy to explain a bit deeper.**

 **But did you like my borrowing a couple of lines from 'The Name of the Doctor?' I kind of imagine Nine as quoting the justification that the Warrior used (which was why he said it in the episode), and Eleven was later repeating what he vaguely remembered the Guardian saying.**

 **For anyone who is curious, I imagine the 1st Weapon as looking kind of like Jennifer Morrison when she went all Dark Swan in _Once Upon A Time._**

 **Also (hint of the future), does the description of little Amadahy sound a bit familiar?**

 **Next Time: The Doctor and the Guardian meet a VERY old friend. Oh, and the final month of the Guardian's pregnancy isn't at all as pleasant as the first 7 months have been.**


	13. Chapter 13: The End of the World

**I own nothing except for the Guardian, Lady Ariana, and the twins. If I did own Doctor Who, Martha would have gotten more acknowledgment for how much she helped the Doctor heal, instead of all the credit going to Rose.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian was nearing her end.

At least, that's what she hoped.

Especially since the Doctor had hidden all of her guns while she slept. Granted, she _had_ nearly shot him for touching her.

The last month of pregnancy was even more hellish than she remembered it being last time. So much for her eidetic memory.

The first seven months of a Gallifreyan pregnancy were easy—illness was rare, there were no mood swings, maybe a tiny bit of back pain that was mostly unnoticeable.

But the entire last month was actually the early stages of labor—and suddenly the mood swings came out full force along with very frequent back pain. The Guardian had spent most of the last two weeks crying from the combination of pain and hormones. Somehow, her back had managed to hurt in the one place where she hadn't built up a high pain tolerance.

And she still had two more weeks to go.

That thought alone made her want to cry again. Or shoot something. If only the Doctor hadn't refused to give her guns back until after her hormones calmed down again.

He had been fortunate that she was in too much pain to hit him for that comment.

 _'Anytime you're ready, dearies'_ she commented to the twins through their connection.

The only response was a strong sense of annoyance. Clearly the twins were as eager to be out of their misery as she was. She couldn't even appreciate that Gallifreyan pregnancies carried far smaller than human pregnancies, sparing her the swollen ankles and feeling like a star whale.

She finished drying her hair from the most recent hot bath the TARDIS had provided her with. At least the old time machine was sympathetic to her misery. Not that the Doctor didn't try. But the last time he'd had to deal with a pregnant wife, he had been the insanely young age of 110. It had been a while.

And she _really_ doubted the Gentle had ever tried to shoot him.

The Guardian finished dressing as quickly as her back would let her and made her way to the console room, which was lit up in green from the TARDIS's time rotor. She smiled slightly. Green was a calming color for her.

A particularly bad pain hit her, causing her to grip the edge of the console as hard as she could. She flinched when the Doctor appeared beside her and began gently massaging her lower back.

 _"Eltanin, please, take us somewhere. I don't care where, just as long as it distracts me."_ She spoke through clenched teeth. A moment later, the pain lessened back to a dull ache and she breathed a sigh of relief.

 _"_ _Alright."_ He moved away from her to set coordinates. _"Setting_ _coordinates to_ _random."_

The Guardian nodded weakly, pleased when the pain completely subsided. She would have a few hours before the pain got really bad again, and she desperately needed to get out. They hadn't left the Vortex in the last two weeks, and even in a time machine with infinite rooms, claustrophobia could set in.

The TARDIS landed more gently than usual and the Doctor came back over to check the monitor. The Guardian glanced at it also, noting the date and location.

 _"Seems safe enough,"_ the Doctor commented.

 _"The day Earth's sun finally expands and destroys the Earth? Safe?"_

He nodded, pulling up the schematics of Platform One, where they had landed. _"Heat shields. High security. Nothing could go wrong."_

The Guardian groaned. _"I hope for all our sakes you didn't just jinx this trip."_

 _"Oi!"_ He chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her expanded waist. Together, they made their way out of the TARDIS.

They stepped out into a large, empty room with a window taking up nearly an entire wall. Outside of the window was Earth, looking exactly like it had five billion years ago.

The Doctor glanced at his watch. "Hold on."

Suddenly, the sun flared red and began its expansion.

"So, gravity satellites holding the sun back?" the Guardian guessed, resting her head against the Doctor's shoulder. Two weeks of desperation to distract herself had resulted in her reading a fair amount of the books in the TARDIS library. She had actually learned quite a bit, thanks to her eidetic memory helping her retain the information.

She felt him nod. "By this point, the Earth has been the property of the National Trust. They've kept the sun back, and shifted the continents so it looks like 'Classic Earth'."

"Classic Earth. Meaning, how it looked when mankind first started making their way into space?"

"Yep."

 _~"Shuttles five and six now docking."~_

"What do you say we go and meet the other guests?" The Doctor asked.

The Guardian frowned. "What for? They're all just a bunch of wealthy snobs who are only here for the fun and so they can be seen at the right events."

"You never know," the Doctor replied. "There might be someone interesting here." Using his arm around her waist, the Doctor pulled her away from the window and down a corridor. A few doors needing to be sonicked later and they came to the main observation room.

The enormous room was empty aside from a few display cases. The Guardian slipped away from the Doctor to look at the objects. They were mostly boring, rocks and fossils and things, except for one.

A bright red fez.

The Guardian frowned and read the small plaque beside it.

 _Believed to have belonged to the ancient organization, UNIT._

She groaned and glanced at her husband, who was looking at some of the other display cases. There was only one reason that UNIT would have a fez.

At some point in the future, her husband regenerated into a lunatic. In a fez. She made a quick mental note to make sure that every fez in the wardrobe were burned.

"Who the hell are you?" The Guardian turned to see a man—at least she assumed it was a man—with very blue skin and golden eyes with slit-shaped pupils like a cat's. He wore a baggy suit-like outfit.

"Oh, that's nice. Thanks." The Doctor said sarcastically, hurrying over to reach the Guardian before the man did.

"We are guests," the Guardian said. She guessed that the man was a steward or something. "My husband has our invitation."

 _'Psychic paper. Left pocket.'_ She added in the Doctor's mind.

He grinned at her and showed the steward the psychic paper. "There, you see? It's fine. The Doctor and the Guardian." He slipped his arm around the Guardian's waist. "I'm the Doctor, and this is the wife, the Guardian. Is that all right?"

The steward looked slightly shocked. "Well, obviously. Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy."

The Doctor grinned tensely and nodded as the steward moved over to a lectern. The Guardian took the psychic paper from him and tucked it back in his pocket, missing her own leather jacket. Rather than empty the pockets, the Doctor had just hidden the entire coat. At least she had only worn the jacket for the look, rather like he did his.

Though she did plan to steal his jacket sometime, just for revenge.

The steward spoke. "We have in attendance the Doctor and the Guardian. Thank you. All staff to their positions." He clapped twice and a couple dozen shorter, blue-skinned people appeared, all of them wearing black outfits and helmets. They chattered and made their way to their positions in a manner that reminded the Guardian of the time the Doctor had convinced her to go to the premiere of _The Wizard of Oz_ in 1939.

His taste in films had gone on her 'Not To Be Trusted' list, along with his taste in food.

"And now, might I introduce the next honored guest? Representing the Forest of Cheem, we have trees. Namely, Jabe, Lute, and Coffa."

The doors opened and three tree-like humanoids, two males and a female, walked in. The Guardian noted that the males looked more like bodyguards, especially as they walked a couple of steps behind the female tree, dressing in black attire that resembled armor.

The steward said something about exchanging gifts, making the Guardian stiffen. No matter what people claimed, an exchanging of gifts was the easiest way to sneak in a bomb, poison, or some other form of weapon.

An alien on a transport pod entered. The Moxx of Balhoon. He was followed by a group of six bipeds in black robes that hid every feature. The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. The Guardian watched them as they made their way into the room. Something was definitely wrong with them. They didn't move naturally, so they were mostly likely robots. And what was a meme anyway? She had heard the term used on Earth, but she had never bothered to learn what it meant.

The Doctor nudged her gently as the trio of trees approached.

"The gift of peace," the female, Jabe, spoke. "I bring you a cutting of my grandfather."

The Guardian accepted the small potted tree, glancing over it to ensure there was nothing obviously dangerous. It could have been in the soil, but she figured the trees might get offended if she started digging through the soil right in front of them.

"Thank you. Yes, gifts." The Doctor patted his pockets with his free hand, the other still around her waist. Apparently finding nothing, he replied, "Er, I give you in return..air from my lungs."

The Guardian rolled her eyes as he leaned forward just enough to exhale in the direction of Jabe.

The tree looked surprised and flustered. "How intimate."

"There's more where that came from," the Doctor replied.

The Guardian stiffened at the Doctor's unintentional flirting and glanced away, stinging her eyes. She really hated these late-pregnancy hormones. They stole away her logic, which told her that the Doctor meant nothing by it, and left her a weak puddle of easily hurt feelings.

Trying to distract herself, the Guardian focused on the latest guest to enter.

"All the way from the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event. Please welcome… the Face of Boe, and his goddaughter, Lady Ariana."

A disembodied humanoid head, the size of an adult human, suspended in a glass case barely made it through the doorway. The aptly named Face of Boe was followed, then joined, by a pretty young ginger. Her long brown leather vest and knee-length, multi-layered ruffled shirt didn't fit with the rest of the guests. In fact, it vaguely looked Victorian and yet futuristic, in a style the Doctor had once called "Steampunk".

The Guardian jumped as saliva hit her cheek.

"Thank you very much." She heard the slight chuckle in the Doctor's voice, which nearly started her tears all over again. She was _really_ ready to be done with this pregnancy.

The Adherents of the Repeated Meme approached. Even closer, the Guardian still couldn't see anything under their robes. Her suspicions about them being robots were confirmed when one held out a metal ball, revealing a robotic arm with large metal talons.

As soon as they were past, the Guardian shifted to slip the tree cutting into the Doctor's pocket and dig the sonic screwdriver out.

 _'What are you doing?'_

She just winked at him and gave the ball a short pulse from the sonic, just enough to fry whatever mechanics were inside it. With a grin, she tossed to the Doctor. He caught it with his free hand.

"A gift of peace in all good faith." She repeated the words of the black-robed Adherents.

 _'You know I don't like gift exchanges, Eltanin, especially when I can't even see the faces of the givers.'_

The Doctor nodded in understanding just as the Steward spoke again.

"And last but not least—our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth… the Last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

A flesh-colored trampoline with eyes and lipstick was wheeled in, two men in white surgical uniforms following in its wake. The Guardian frowned at how the uniforms covered them completely, just like the Adherents' robes.

"Oh, now, don't stare." The trampoline spoke. "I know, I know—it's shocking, isn't it?"

Beside the Guardian, the Doctor was failing at hiding his laughter. She elbowed him in the ribs, now annoyed.

"Shocking is one word for it." The Guardian heard a Scottish accent mutter. She glanced over to see that Lady Ariana nearby. The ginger also looked less than impressed by the "last human".

"Look how thin I am," the trampoline was saying. "Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me. Moisturize me."

One of the attendants sprayed her down with some sort of hydrating liquid.

 _'If that's what two thousand years old looked like,'_ the Guardian muttered to the Doctor. _'Then you look_ _pretty good. I think_ _.'_

 _'Don't I just?'_ A moment passed, then: _'Oi!'_

The Guardian smirked a little, pleased at having gotten a little tease about his real age in. She let him tell everyone that he was nine hundred years old, because she realized why he did it. She let him tell everyone that she was 586 years old because she didn't want everyone thinking she was nearly twice his age.

But that didn't mean that she wasn't going to tease him about how old he really was every now and then.

She shifted her attention back to the trampoline with delusions of humanity.

"Truly, I am the Last Human."

The Guardian rolled her eyes. She heard Lady Ariana muttering some more under her breath.

"My father was a Texan; my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye." The trampoline began sniffling—or at least she would have been sniffling if she had enough of a nose to do so. One of her attendants pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the corners of her eyes. "Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry."

The Guardian leaned against the Doctor. _'Please spare me from the trampoline's theatrics.'_

The Doctor grinned down at her. _'What? You're not impressed by the 'last human'?'_

 _'When I said I wanted a distraction, I didn't mean an overly dramatic piece of skin with eyes and a mouth. And how the hell is she even able to speak? She doesn't have any vocal cords.'_

He shrugged. The Guardian rolled her eyes again and looked at the large egg what one of the staff showed everyone.

She frowned suspiciously. An egg really survived intact for billions of years? And they were handling it so carelessly?

"Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband?" Lady Trampoline laughed at her own joke. "Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh! I'll get laughter lines."

The Doctor was the only one laughing. Most of the other guests looked shocked, while Lady Ariana's annoyance mirrored the Guardian's.

Trampoline finally seemed to realize her own faux pas. "Mercy!" She muttered, then cleared her throat… wherever that was. "And here, another rarity."

A couple of the staff wheeled in a… jukebox? The Guardian shook her head. The things that survived time.

"According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It store classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

A button was pressed, a record selected, and 'Tainted Love' began playing. The Doctor grinned, and suddenly the Guardian found herself being pulled over to a clear area of the room. The Doctor spun her around so she was facing him.

 _'Don't you are…'_ She threatened, realizing what he wanted to do.

 _'Come on, Amadahy. Dance with me?'_ He smiled softly.

She shook her head, not quite able to believe that she was giving in so easily. _'Fine.'_

With a grin, the Doctor led her in a dance that matched the song's rhythm and also his dancing skills—such as they were. The Guardian actually found herself enjoying their impromptu dance, so she laughed rather loudly when the Doctor tripped over air. He chuckled in response.

When the music finished, they sort of collapsed against a column, the Doctor leaning against it, the Guardian leaning against him, her back to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her so his hands were on her stomach, and he rested his cheek against her head. The Guardian smiled and placed her hands on top of his. They stood in silence and watched the other guests exchange gifts.

 _~"Earth Death in twenty-five minutes."~_

Lady Ariana walked over, smiling softly. "A gift of peace from the Face of Boe." She held out two small silver pendants.

The Guardian accepted them, noting that they were shaped like crescent moons, and were inlaid with purple and blue.

"There's a tradition among my people," Lady Ariana explained. "They believe if you hang one of these above a child's cradle, the child will venture far and wide, yet they will always return to their family."

The Guardian blinked. How did she…?

"How did you know?" The Doctor asked for her.

Lady Ariana smiled. "I guessed. I suppose you remind me of my parents. When my mother was pregnant with my sister, my father always held her like that. Only the height difference was a lot more drastic than with you two." She laughed, then suddenly turned to look at the Face of Boe. "I need to go. My godfather needs me."

The Guardian and the Doctor both nodded and she hurried off.

"Interesting young woman." The Doctor mused. "Did she seem familiar at all to you?"

The Guardian nodded slowly. "Just a little."

 _~"Would the owner of the blue box in private gallery 15 please report to the steward's office immediately?"~_

The Guardian looked away from the ginger. "I suppose that's us." She straightened, pulling herself out of the Doctor's arms. She looked back to see him frowning. "We need to go make sure they don't do something strange with the TARDIS."

As it turned out, the staff wanted to move the TARDIS. The Doctor gave his permission and promptly dragged the Guardian back out of the steward's office. On their way back to the observation gallery, they passed a group of the small staff wheeling the TARDIS away.

"I don't want to see any scratches," the Guardian called to them. "Make sure to park it properly."

One of the staff walked over and handed her a ticket, mumbling in its language. On one side of the ticket was a bunch of numbers; the other side read, _Have a nice day_.

The Guardian frowned a little, glancing up as she heard a metallic skittering. There was nothing.

Still frowning, she allowed the Doctor to pull her along back to the main room.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They had just reached the observation gallery when suddenly the entire Platform shook. There were a couple of screams, but everyone remained on their feet. Even so, the Doctor's arm around the Guardian's waist tightened.

"That's not supposed to happen." He muttered.

"I should have known," the Guardian groaned. He looked at her quizzically. "Nothing is ever a simple thing with you. I really should have figured that one out when I realized I was pregnant with twins."

He just grinned and kissed her.

They heard the steward's falsely calm voice over the announcement system. _~"Honored guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence. Thanking you."~_

The Guardian pulled the Doctor over to a computer monitor. "That didn't feel like a gravity pocket, don't you think?" She touched the screen, looking for the mainframe.

"Definitely didn't feel like a gravity pocket. Any thoughts, Jabe?"

The Guardian stiffened and looked behind her. The female tree had joined them. Great. Just what she needed right now.

The Doctor continued, "Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about 30 Hertz."

"Thirty-three," the Guardian corrected.

The Doctor grinned at her. "That dodgy or what?"

Jabe shrugged. "It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" The Doctor asked.

"I don't know. But the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite. I could show you and your..."

"Wife," the Guardian supplied with a forced smile. "Show us." She took the Doctor's hand and pulled him out of the room, Jabe following.

 _~"Earth Death in fifteen minutes."~_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian heard a metallic skittering again as they stepped inside the maintenance duct, which was really more of a corridor. She breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't going to have to crawl through shafts. Her back was beginning to ache again, and she knew that she couldn't have crawled at this point.

"So who's in charge of Platform One?" The Doctor asked Jabe. "Is there a captain or what?"

"There's just the steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind."

"You mean the computer," the Guardian replied. "But who controls that?"

"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another." Jabe responded.

"Artistic—"

"But there's no one from the Corporation on board." The Doctor interrupted the Guardian.

 _'I know, Amadahy, I know.'_

 _'Seriously, though? They think the burning of a several billion year-old planet is an "artistic event"?'_

"They're not needed," Jabe spoke, not realizing that they were talking to each other. "This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong." Jabe finished confidently.

The Guardian snorted. She'd heard that before.

"Unsinkable?" The Doctor asked.

"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate."

"You're telling me!" The Doctor replied. "We were on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. We ended up clinging to an iceberg."

The Guardian snorted again. "I nearly got hypothermia, which I thought my training had made impossible, so thanks for that." She stopped and looked behind her to glare weakly at the Doctor.

He grimaced. _'Sorry?'_

 _'I still can't believe that I let you talk me into_ _that! It's a good thing the TARDIS likes me enough to save us from that iceberg.'_

Now he grinned. _'But you have to admit that warming up afterwards was very enjoyable.'_

She rolled her eyes and shifted her attention to the very confused-looking tree. "So, Jabe, what you're saying is that if we get into trouble, there's no one qualified to help us out on board?"

"I'm afraid not." She replied.

"Fantastic!" The Doctor took the lead.

"I don't understand," Jabe said to the Guardian. "In what way is _that_ fantastic?"

The Guardian shook her head. "The worse it gets, the more he loves it."

"Oi!" The Doctor shouted from ahead of them.

The Guardian rolled her eyes and the two female aliens followed him.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"So, Jabe, what are you doing here?" The Guardian asked. Ever since the tree had learned the Guardian was the Doctor's wife, she had backed off with her flirting and focused more on the Guardian. Now the Guardian was starting to like the tree.

"Respect for the Earth."

"Oh, come on!" The Doctor scoffed. "Everyone on this platform is worth zillions."

"Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions."

The Guardian nodded, understanding. The various Lord Presidents she had served had been in a similar situation, although they rarely left the planet.

"In case your share prices drop?" The Doctor replied doubtfully. "I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere—roots everywhere! And there's always money in land."

"All the same, we respect the Earth as family," Jabe said, smiling. "So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."

The Doctor shrugged, conceding her point. The Guardian noticed a door panel, and she pulled the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's pocket to begin working on it.

"And what about your ancestry?" Jabe continued slowly. "Perhaps you both could tell a story or two."

The Guardian stiffened, then muttered a curse as the panel read "access denied".

"Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left, and his mate joins him because they only have each other."

The Doctor stepped slightly closer to the Guardian and laid his hand on her belly. She bit her lip, the hormones making her eyes sting.

"I scanned you earlier—while you were dancing. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from!"

The Guardian felt the Doctor tremble beside her. She forced herself to continue focusing on the panel, rather than looking at him. They were almost through.

She could hear the sadness in Jabe's voice as the tree kept talking. "Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that one of you exists, let alone two of you!" She paused. "I just wanted to say… how sorry I am." She placed a hand on the Guardian's shoulder.

The Guardian glanced at the bark-like hand, then back at the panel. One more pulse and the door opened. Jabe went through first.

The Doctor started to follow her, but the Guardian grabbed his coat. She pushed him back against the opposite wall and kissed him until she felt the tension leave his shoulders. Then she pulled back a little and wiped the tears from his eyes.

 _"You did it in the name of peace and sanity, Eltanin,"_ she repeated the words he had told her two months before, after her nightmare. _"There was no other choice."_

He kissed her again, then his hands and gave shifted to her belly. _"Because of me, the only home the twins will ever know is the TARDIS."_

 _"And the Earth,"_ the Guardian insisted. _"I'm certain they will spend plenty of time at Sarah's home."_

 _"But the red grass…and the silver trees… my family's estates on the slopes of Mount Perdition..."_

 _"Were all destroyed during the War."_ The Guardian interrupted his nostalgia. _"Through us, the twins will get to imagine Gallifrey as it was, not as what it became. They_ _will never have to endure the torture and fear of standing before the Untempered Schism, and our son will certainly not have to endure the same pressures that you did as a male heir of the House of Lungbarrow."_

"Guardian! Doctor!" They heard Jabe call.

The Guardian waited for the Doctor's response. Slowly, he nodded, then kissed her one more time. Hand-in-hand, they slipped through the door into the engine room.

Jabe looked at them curiously, but they chose to ignore her questioning looks, focusing on the enormous fans suspended just over a catwalk. The Guardian noticed a large switch on the other side of the fans and groaned quietly. Why did something tell her that they were going to need to get to that switch later?

She rubbed her back as there was a tiny sharp pain.

"Is it me, or is it a bit nippy?" The Doctor commented. "Fair dos, though. That's a great bit of air-conditioning. Sort of nice and old-fashioned. Bet they call it retro." He said to the Guardian.

The Guardian smiled, grateful to see him going back to his normal self, and used the sonic screwdriver to scan a nearby panel. She pulled it off. A metal spider skittered past them and up a wall. So that was what had been making the noise she kept hearing. And she thought the hormones were making her lose her mind.

"What the hell's that?" The Doctor asked.

Jabe chimed in, "Is that part of the retro?"

"Unfortunately not," the Guardian replied. "I'd say that's our saboteur. Or at least one of them. So how to get it back down..." She looked at the Doctor. "You should be regretting stealing my stun pistol right about now."

He smiled tightly. Suddenly, Jabe shot out a liana, striking the spider. It fell directly into the Guardian's hand.

She nodded, impressed. "Good shot."

Jabe smiled. "Thank you. I'm not supposed to show them in public."

"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody," the Doctor promised.

"This is made to sabotage," the Guardian said, looking at the metal spider. "And the temperature's about to get very hot. So who brought a few pets on board?"

 _~"Earth Death in ten minutes."~_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian led the way to the steward's office. The corridor was filled with smoke and coughing assistants. She took one deep breath and began coughing as well. After eight hundred years of war, the smell of burning flesh was unmistakeable. She felt sick.

She held her breath, letting her respiratory bypass system kick in, and sonicked the door panel.

 _~"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."~_

"Is the steward in there?" Jabe asked, horrified.

"What do you think that smell is?" The Guardian asked. She took off towards the observation gallery.

 _~"Earth Death in five minutes."~_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian strode into the crowded observation gallery, the Doctor and Jabe in her wake. She held up the spider. "Look at what we found in the engine room. Seems someone's little pets have been busy infiltrating Platform One."

Several guests gasped in horror.

"How's that possible?" The trampoline asked. "Our private rooms are protected by a code wall." She frantically told her attendants to moisturize her.

"Summon the steward!" The Moxx of Balhoon demanded.

"Dead." The Guardian snapped.

Now everyone gasped, and several exclaimed in outrage.

"Who killed him?" The Moxx asked.

The trampoline spoke. "This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us! Talk to the Face!"

The Face of Boe groaned and shook… well, his head.

Lady Ariana placed a hand on the glass and crouched down. The Guardian watched her telepathically communicate with her godfather for a moment, then she stood, her outrage clear. "If anyone dares accuse my godfather of sabotage and murder again..."

She pulled a sonic blaster out of a holster on her hip that the Guardian realized had been hidden by a perception filter and pointed it at Trampoline. There were a few screams. Lady Ariana smiled coldly. "I never liked following the rules."

"There's an easier way to find out." The Guardian interrupted. She had a rather shocking idea of who Lady Ariana might be, and she felt the need to protect the girl. "I just have to program the spider to return to its master." She sonicked the spider and set it down.

The spider made its way over to Lady Trampoline and scanned her. Everyone turned to her questioningly, but then the spider scurried over the Adherents of the Repeated Meme.

Unsurprising.

She nodded at the Doctor. His turn, since he refused to let her put herself in deliberate danger. Though being married to him was practically putting herself in deliberate danger, with the trouble he tended to attract whenever he stepped outside their door.

"That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it..."

He made his way over to the black-robed crowd. The leader tried to hit him, but he simply caught the arm and ripped it off. The Guardian smiled, pleased that he actually remembered how to do that trick that she taught him before the War.

"A Repeated Meme is just an idea," he continued. "And that's all they are: an idea." He ripped off one of the loose wires. The Adherents collapsed, powering down.

"Remote-controlled Droids. Such a nice, tidy cover for the real troublemaker." The Guardian went over and linked her arm with the Doctor's. She barely hid her grimace as she felt another stab of pain.

"Go on, Jimbo. Go home." The Doctor pushed the spider forward with his foot.

Just as the Guardian expected, the spider returned to the Trampoline. She glared at the Doctor. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed."

The Doctor gave her an offended look.

The Guardian snorted. "More like he was the insane one who got married when he was barely old enough to do so without his parents' consent."

"Oi!"

"At arms!" The Trampoline's attendants raised the sprayers.

"What're you going to do? Moisturize us?" The Doctor asked sarcastically.

The Guardian winced as she felt another pain. Then she realized what was happening. Oh, if there had been any doubt that the twins were the Doctor's children, those concerns would have died as she realized that they definitely inherited their father's sense of timing.

"With acid." Lady Trampoline replied. "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face."

"You're not even that," Lady Ariana snapped.

Trampoline glared at the girl.

"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it?" The Doctor said, drawing her attention away from Lady Ariana. "How stupid's that?"

"I'd hoped to manufacture and hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."

The Guardian sighed, disgusted. "Five billion years, and it still all comes down to money."

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this?" Lady Trampoline snapped. "Flatness costs a fortune! I am the Last Human, Guardian."

"Arrest her! The infidel!" The Moxx shouted. The other guests chimed in their agreement.

"Oh, shut it, pixie! I've still got my final option."

 _~"Earth Death in three minutes."~_

"And here it comes! You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies. And they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? 'Burn, baby, burn.'"

"Then you'll burn with us." Jabe sneered over the panicked murmurs of the other guests.

The Guardian narrowed her eyes. "Except that she sneaked a teleporter on, didn't you?"

"Oh, the redhead is right. The Face's little goddaughter isn't the only one who likes to be naughty. Spiders, activate."

The Platform shook with a series of explosions. The Guardian tightened her grip on the Doctor's arm to keep her balance.

"Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode... At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me." She laughed. "Bye-bye, darlings!"

The trampoline and her attendants teleported away.

 _~"Heat levels rising."~_

The Guardian released the Doctor's arm. "Alright, time to reset the computer." She strode towards the door, the Doctor close behind her. They had to finish this as soon as possible. And not just because of the exploding sun.

"Only the steward would know how!" Jabe shouted after them.

"There's a switch in the engine room," the Guardian paused at the door. "I can do it by hand. Stay here, Jabe. The engine room is going to be hot."

"You lot, just chill." The Doctor added, making the Guardian roll her eyes.

They hurried through the door, and broke into a run.

 _~"Heat rising. Earth Death in two minutes."~_

They reached the engine room as the computer announced that the heat levels were critical. "The switch is on the other side of the fans."

"Just our luck." The Doctor muttered, looking at the rapidly moving fan blades.

"You mean your luck."

"Oi!"

 _~"Heat levels rising."~_

The Guardian went over to a breaker lever and pulled it. The fans slowed, but the moment she released the lever, they sped up again.

 _~"External temperature, five thousand degrees."~_

The Guardian weighed their options. She could go through the fans with the Doctor holding the lever down, but with the way her contractions were going, she should be getting a big one soon. Even a small one would slow her down, and they couldn't afford that.

Her decision made, she pulled the lever back down. "Go! And hurry!"

The Doctor only hesitated for a moment.

 _~"Heat levels hazardous."~_

The Doctor made it past the first fan.

A moment later, he passed the second one. Two more left.

 _~"Heat levels critical."~_

Then another. One left.

Sweat made her grip on the lever loosen.

 _~"Heat levels rising."~_

Suddenly, pain exploded in the Guardian's back, like someone had kicked her from behind. She collapsed on the ground and curled into a ball.

 _'Amadahy!'_

 _'Just get to the switch, Eltanin!'_

 _'I can't.'_

The panic in his voice made her uncurl from her fetal position just enough to look. The fan blades had sped up until they were a blur. Impossible to get through. Unless…

 _'Eltanin, you know how to do this.'_

 _'I learned in school, Amadahy! I never actually had to do it!'_

 _~"Planet explodes in ten… nine… eight…"~_

He needed to to think of anything else, the Guardian began singing an old Gallifreyan lullaby, one that her mother had taught her.

 _~"_ _seven… six… five..."_

 _'I'm through!'_

 _~"Four..."~_

The Guardian breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her face down to the floor, tightening her position as more contractions hit her. At her best guess, she still had an hour.

 _~"Three… two..."~_

"Raise shields!" She heard the Doctor shout.

 _~"One."~_

Even in the engine room, the Guardian heard the Earth explode. But they survived.

 _"Amadahy!"_ She heard the Doctor run over to her.

She shifted just enough to see his face as he knelt down beside her. _"Your children inherited your timing."_

He eyes widened as he realized what she meant. _"Alright then, it's time to finish this."_ As gently as he could, he gathered her into his arms. Even so, she hissed in pain. _"I'm sorry,_ " he murmured.

The Guardian gripped the lapel of his jacket tight enough that she wondered if it was going to tear off. She tried to relax, resting her head on his shoulder while he carried her back to the observation gallery. Once there, he took over to Lady Ariana and the Face of Boe.

 _"Will you be okay?"_ he whispered.

She nodded. He set her down and nodded Lady Ariana over. The girl slipped underneath Guardian's arm and wrapped her arm around the Guardian's waist to help bear her weight.

"Keep her safe." The Doctor told Lady Ariana.

The girl nodded.

He kissed the Guardian. _"I love you."_ Then he walked over to the center of the room.

Jabe hurried over. "Guardian, what's wrong?" She moved to the Guardian's other side, to assist Lady Ariana.

The Guardian smiled weakly. "It seems my soon-to-be born twins inherited their father's sense of timing. Except they're early, whereas he's always late."

Lady Ariana gasped. "You're—"

"About to give birth? Yep." The Guardian hissed as another contraction hit. Now she was starting to doubt that she had an hour.

A flash of light made the Guardian look up, just as the Trampoline appeared, sans attendants.

"Oh." She said.

"The Last Human," the Doctor spat.

"So, you passed my little test." Lady Trampoline said, clearly flustered. "Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, um… the… the Human Club."

"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them!"

The Guardian glanced around the room to see that there had been several injured, and a few killed, including the Moxx of Balhoon. She looked at the two women beside her, noting a painful-looking burn on Lady Ariana's hand.

"It depends on your definition of people! And that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries! Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry… and flutter..."

"And creak?" The Doctor asked.

"And what?"

The Guardian noticed it too. A creaking noise.

"Creak," the Doctor repeated. "You're creaking."

The trampoline panicked. "What? I'm drying out!" Her speech became labored. "Oh… sweet heavens… Moisturize me! Moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Doctor stated.

"Have pity!" Trampoline cried.

The Doctor walked back over to the Guardian. Lady Ariana and Jabe moved aside, so the Guardian could fall into his arms.

"I trust you can handle things from here?" He asked them.

They must have agreed and the Guardian simply missed it, because the Doctor gathered her up into his arms and carried her back to the TARDIS.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

An hour later, the Guardian lay in the TARDIS medical bay, holding her ten-minute-old son in shaky arms. The Doctor sat on the bed beside her, one arm around her shoulders, the other holding their twenty-minute-old daughter.

Both infants were small, a little more than three pounds, but that was normal for Gallifreyan twins. Curled up as they were, neither one was much bigger than the Doctor's hand.

Sarah Jane returned carrying a trap of tea things. They had barely made it in time to pick up the twins' godmother, but she had been able to be there. The Guardian smiled slightly. Her calm presence had probably kept the Doctor alive during the worst of the labor.

"So, have you thought of names?" Sarah asked. "I know that he's only ten minutes old, but you've had six months to think about this."

"We have Gallifreyan names picked out." The Doctor told her. "Even though tradition says that we should have waited until they were actually born."

The Guardian smiled. Actually, picking Gallifreyan names had been easy. Since all the heirs of the House of Lungbarrow were named after stars, they had chosen the name Adhara for their daughter, and Wesen for their son. Both were names of stars in the constellation Canis Majoris, just like the Doctor and his twin brother Rastaban had been named for stars in the constellation Draco.

"But you can't tell me." Sarah Jane guessed.

The Guardian's smile faded a little. Under normal circumstances, they could have told her the names they chose for her godchildren. But when the Doctor was exiled from Gallifrey for the last time, when he fled the Time War, the High Council had declared him one of the Nameless. For the rest of his life, only his immediate family and one other living person—the person he trusted most—could know his true name.

As his wife, she had joined him in that exile. And now, their children were also born Nameless, through no choice of their own.

"We did decide to chose human names for them," the Doctor said, pulling the Guardian out of her thoughts.

Their son squirmed a little bit. The Guardian shifted him so he was laying against her chest. "But real human names. Nothing like 'John Smith'."

"Oi! I'll have you know, that name has served me very well."

The Guardian and Sarah Jane exchanged amused glances.

"So, do you have any human names picked out?" The human asked, pouring herself a cup of tea.

Neither adult Gallifreyan spoke.

"No?" Sarah Jane smiled at them. "Surely you must have some ideas."

"Well..." the Doctor began. "I've been thinking about the name Gwyneth."

The Guardian smiled. "After Gwyneth from Cardiff?"

He nodded.

"Our first date," the Guardian explained to Sarah. "There's a rift in time and space in Cardiff, and an alien species called the Gelth wanted to use it to break through and take over the world. But a young servant girl named Gwyneth stopped them." She looked at her daughter, considering the name. It fit the tiny girl.

 _'Gwyneth Sarah?'_ She suggested.

He nodded. "Gwyneth Sarah."

"Oh!" Sarah Jane breathed, tears filling her eyes. "You don't have to do that."

"You saved my life on multiple occasions, Sarah. It's an honor to name my daughter after you."

Sarah Jane wiped her tears away. "It's my honor, too."

The Guardian smiled, realizing that the Doctor just gave her exactly what she need. "And speaking of naming out children after people that have saved our lives, I want to name our son Michael."

It took the Doctor a moment, then he frowned. "You want to name our son after Ricky the Idiot?"

"Mickey," the Guardian corrected. "Without him, we wouldn't have a son. He saved our life both times he helped us. So yes."

She could see the struggle on the Doctor's face before he sighed. "Alright. Michael."

The Guardian smiled and began playing with the tiny bit of dark hair on Michael's head.

"What about Michael Alastair?" Sarah Jane said suddenly.

"After the Brigadier?" The Doctor asked.

She nodded.

"Brigadier Lethridge-Stewart?" The Guardian asked. She remembered the man from the Doctor's memories. A good man. A worthy namesake for her son.

"The man who was always there for me, no matter how dark things got. The man who changed UNIT for the better." The Doctor looked over.

"Michael Alastair." The Guardian said softly. "I like it."

The Doctor kissed her forehead. "Michael Alastair."

The Guardian rested her head against the Doctor's shoulder, tired, but content to watch their newborns sleep.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Much later, the Guardian woke up in her own bed. She blinked, disoriented for a moment until she remembered begging the Doctor to take her back to their room. She hated hospitals, or anything even remotely like a hospital, and so she preferred to spend as little time as possible in them.

Sarah Jane had gone to her room not long after they named the twins. It seemed that the TARDIS had known she was going to return long before any of the rest of them did, because her bedroom as exactly as she had left it all those years ago, complete with pictures and souvenirs from all the places she visited with the Doctor.

The Guardian noticed that the Doctor's side of the bed was empty and she rolled over.

Her husband was sitting in the chair beside the cot the twins would share for the first few weeks. He was dimly lit by the lamp they had set up there, but she could see that he was watching them.

Her body protesting, the Guardian stood and walked over. The Doctor looked up.

She was started to see the tears steadily streaming down his cheeks. _"What's wrong?"_ she asked.

He shifted, allowing her to sit on his lap, since crouching beside him was definitely not an option.

 _"Eltanin, talk to me."_ She rested her forehead against his.

He hesitated. _"_ _I just… I can't quite believe it."_

 _"It?"_

 _"They're here."_

The Guardian smiled and kissed him, just as Gwyneth woke up and began fussing to be held.

That they were.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **And the twins are here! What do you guys think of the names (both human and Gallifreyan)? And we found out why the Doctor's name is a secret.**

 **Now, who liked the fact that the Guardian kept calling Cassandra "the trampoline" or variations there of? When I was writing the chapter, it just didn't feel right for the Guardian to call her by name.**

 **And, Lady Ariana, well… it's pretty obvious who she is. But I can say, she's not Gwyneth in the future!**

 **By the way, the fez being present in the episode was not my idea. If you look really closely when the Doctor and Rose first enter the main observation gallery, there's a wide shot that shows the whole room. In one of the glass display cases, there's a red cylindrical object that looks a heck of a lot like a fez.**

 **The next chapter is actually going to skip ahead a year, since the Doctor and the Guardian DO plan to stay out of trouble (granted, with the Doctor, that only works so well, hence the fact that the time skip is only a year).**

 **And now we only have three chapters left! Which means… next chapter brings back a few familiar faces… and includes a scene or two that I'm really looking forward to.**

Review Notes:

Engine of a Dream: I'm so glad you enjoyed the chapter! I was a bit nervous when posting it, because it's more or less an original chapter, and the characters have SO much departed from their normal selves.

Also, I just want to say thanks to NicoleR85 for reviewing every chapter!


	14. Chapter 14: Boom Town

**I own nothing except for the Guardian and the twins.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian heard a faint buzz from the console room. She smiled and finished dressing Gwyneth. At a year old, the little girl was now about the size of a typical human child her age.

 _"Maiteria, I had the most fantastic dream..."_ But unlike a human, she could already talk, at least in Gallifreyan. And goodness, she inherited her talkativeness from her father.

Half-listening to her daughter tell all about the dream she had over her nap, the Guardian carried her to the console room. "Jack, get the door. Mickey is approaching."

The 51st Century man put down the tools he had been holding for the Doctor and made his way to the door. A couple of weeks before, he'd gotten into quite a bit of trouble and gave them a call. Even though they weren't traveling a lot, he had asked to stay with them for a bit. The Doctor hadn't even hesitated before agreeing.

The Guardian set Gwyneth down with Michael in the small play area the TARDIS had added off the console area, to keep the twins out of trouble. A wise addition, considering who their father was. Her smile faded a bit as she glanced up at her husband.

He still felt guilty for the way he treated Jack the first time they had met. Never mind that the man didn't remember it. Sometimes, the Guardian wished that Jack would move on, so the Doctor wasn't constantly confronted with the memory of yet another failing of his.

"Who the hell are you?" She heard Jack ask at the door a moment after a knock sounded.

"What do you mean, who the hell am I?" Mickey's voice replied, clearly offended. "Who the hell are you?"

Smiling again, the Guardian hurried over to the console. It had been a while since they saw Mickey; the twins had still been tiny.

"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."

"Get out of my way!" Mickey pushed his way into the TARDIS.

"So this is Mickey," Jack drawled.

"Here comes trouble!" The Doctor called from the top of a ladder, where he was attempting to fix some wires. "How're you doing, Ricky-boy?"

"It's Mickey!" The Guardian corrected at the same time as Mickey. She continued, "Now get down from there before you cut power to the entire TARDIS, like you nearly did last week." She smiled sweetly in response to his one-hearted glare, then turned to Mickey. "How is my son's godfather?"

"Honorary godfather," he replied, then accepted her hug.

She really wasn't a hugger, but the last year as a mum made it easier to make exceptions, like for Mickey.

"That's enough hugging, now," the Doctor almost snapped, his voice sounding closer.

The Guardian rolled her eyes and stepped out of the hug. She looked pointedly at the Doctor. "After a comment like that, you'll have to buy me a drink before you get another hug."

He smirked, knowing exactly where this was going. Immortals couldn't drink alcohol anymore than Time Lords could. "You're such hard work."

"But you know I'm worth it." She winked at him and turned back to Mickey. "How've you been?"

The Doctor came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest.

"Good," Mickey nodded. "Same as ever."

Meaning that he was still dating Rose, despite the fact that the blonde pudding brain didn't care about him. The Guardian had easily seen that. Rose Tyler had even tried flirting with the Doctor a few times before he shot her down.

Mickey cleared his throat. "So, what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I know why you hang around Big Ears over there—"

"Oi!" The Doctor protested.

"Look in the mirror." Mickey responded.

The Guardian smirked.

"But this guy? I don't know, he's kinda..."

"Handsome?" Jack supplied.

Now the Guardian rolled her eyes at the man's ego. Goodness, he was spending too much time around the Doctor.

"More like cheesy." Mickey finished.

"Early 21st Century slang. Is 'cheesy' good or bad?" Jack moved to stand next to the console.

"It's bad," the Guardian replied.

"But 'bad' means 'good', isn't that right?"

"Not at all." The Guardian laughed.

"Are you saying I'm not handsome?" The Doctor asked Mickey.

Now the Guardian rolled her eyes and stepped out of her husband's arms. She turned to give him a quick kiss. "You've been spending too much time around humans if that's what's worrying you."

 _"Maiteria!"_ Michael cried, making Mickey jump.

The Guardian hurried over to the play area, concerned. Unlike his sister, Michael was more the quiet sort, rather like most of her previous incarnations. He rarely ever cried for her.

She found him crying in the middle, looking like he had been trying to walk and fell. Murmuring softly in Gallifreyan, she picked him up and carried him back up to the console area. "Darling, could you get Gwyneth?"

"Sure." The Doctor made his way to get their daughter.

"We are here to refuel, Mickey," she explained. She caught Michael as he lunged for his namesake, remembering the young man. "You can thank me for sending the Doctor to get Gwyneth and sparing you the big speech he and Jack worked out. They _think_ it's so clever."

"Hey!" Jack protested, at the same time to Doctor brought Gwyneth up. "Oi! I heard that."

"You were supposed to," the Guardian quipped. "You remember the story I told you behind Gwyneth's name?" She asked Mickey.

"Yeah." Michael lunged for Mickey again, so this time the Guardian passed the baby to the young human. He looked slightly surprised when he realized just how big his godson had gotten, but it quickly disappeared.

"Well, closing a rift leaves a scar," the Doctor said, gently bouncing a now-pouting Gwyneth. Even at a year old, the little girl loved hearing the story behind her name.

The edited version, of course.

The Guardian wanted to protect her children from the reality of violence and death for as long as she could.

Jack picked up the explanation. "That scar generates energy. Harmless to the human race—"

"Don't even try to start that, you two." The Guardian glared at Jack and the Doctor. They both gave her nearly identical innocent looks. "Mickey, the energy is perfect for the TARDIS, similar to petrol. So we've parked here for a few days to refuel the engines."

Mickey nodded, then glanced at the Doctor and Jack. "Seriously, how bad was their explanation?"

The Guardian grimaced, remembering the whole day they spent planning it. "Bad."

Hey!"

"Oi!"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Since they had another 24 hours before the engines had finished refueling, the group decided to go out for lunch. The Gallifreyans changed their twins into warmer clothing, since their physiology couldn't handle cooler temperatures yet, and they all stepped out of the TARDIS.

"That old lady's staring." Mickey commented.

"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box." Jack laughed.

"And two toddlers," the Doctor added, trying to lock the door with one hand and hold Gwyneth with the other.

The Guardian smiled at her daughter's antics. There wasn't much that Gwyneth had obviously inherited from her, but her habit of stealing the Doctor's things appeared to be one of them. "Let me, darling." She took the key and locked the door easily.

The Doctor pouted a little. "You have both hands free."

"That's because I choose to use a sling." She pulled a little on the shoulder strap of the strange contraption Sarah Jane had bought her. It held whichever baby she was carrying close to her, chest to chest, allowing her to have both hands free, something that she appreciated. Even though the last year had been peaceful, she had been a soldier for far too long to feel comfortable carrying her son in one hand and having only the other to use if—the Universe forbid—she needed to fight.

The Doctor, on the other hand, refused to use a sling or any other form of carrier, preferring to carry the twins in his arms, as he had once carried Gaiana on Gallifrey.

She smiled and kissed him, then followed after Jack. The Doctor joined her and took her hand.

"Wait," Mickey called behind them, making the adult trio stop. "The TARDIS—we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?"

Jack nodded slowly. "You know, I've been wondering that same thing."

The Guardian smirked at the Doctor. "Yes, darling. Care to explain why your time machine looks like a bright blue police box, and yet never gets noticed?"

She saw the Doctor start to redden a bit at the neck, especially when the twins chimed in their questions in their childish, poorly enunciated Gallifreyan that sounded like normal baby chatter to human ears.

"It's called a chameleon circuit." He mumbled. When she raised her eyebrows, he picked up his voice. "The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands. Like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."

 _'_ _More like you broke it.'_

He weakly glared at her, didn't deny it.

"So it copied a real thing? There actually was police boxes?" Mickey asked incredulously.

"Yeah, on street corners. You could phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested somebody, they could shove them inside till help came. Like a little prison cell."

"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack asked.

"He's stubborn."

"Oi!"

"But that's what I meant," Mickey hastily interrupted. "There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"

"Mickey," the Doctor gestured for him to start walking. "Let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, and what do they do?"

"Walk past it?"

"Exactly," the Doctor nodded, actually impressed. "Now, stop your nagging, and let's go an explore. The twins have never been to Cardiff."

"That's because the last time we were here we nearly died." The Guardian pointed out.

The Doctor slipped his free arm around her shoulders. "But that's not going to happen this time. It's Cardiff, early 21st century, and the wind's in the...east. Trust me. Safest place in the Universe."

The Guardian groaned. "You just jinxed us."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

They ended up finding a nice little restaurant at the end of a small pier. Somehow, Jack began telling stories of his years as a Time Agent—those he could remember.

"I swear!" Jack nearly shouted, drawing the annoyed attention of most of the other patrons.

"You're lying through your teeth!" The Doctor laughed.

"With big tusks!" Jack insisted. "I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks—and I mean tusks! And it's woken, and it's not happy."

"How could you not notice it?" The Guardian asked him, cutting Gwyneth's fruit into smaller pieces while Michael tried to steal his sister's bananas. Much to her distress, both twins had inherited their father's obsession with bananas.

"And we're standing there—fifteen of us—naked." Jack continued, missing her far quieter comment.

"Oi! Children present!" She corrected.

Jack heard her this time, and shot her an apologetic smile. "And I'm like, 'Oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me. And then it roars, and we are running. Oh, my god, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say—"

"'I knew we should've turned left!'" Mickey finished, laughing.

The Doctor and the twins joined in. The Guardian smiled politely, honestly not finding the story all that funny. It was obviously embellished.

"That's my line!" Jack laughed.

The Guardian glanced over at the Doctor just in time to see a look of horror cross his face. "Darling, what's wrong?"

He ignored her, instead standing and walking away from the table.

Across from her, Mickey asked Jack if he had gotten his clothes back, though he did censor the question and use the word 'things' instead.

The Guardian watched the Doctor rudely snatch a newspaper from the man a couple of tables over. He stared at the newspaper for a moment, then looked at the twins. Finally, his eyes met the Guardian's. At the panic in them, she stood. Mickey and Jack fell silent.

Without a word, the Doctor flipped the paper over, revealing a picture of a very familiar woman, with a headline reading 'New Mayor, New Cardiff'.

It was one of the Slitheen in disguise.

She sighed and crossed her arms. Their quiet time with the children was disturbed already.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Nearly an hour later, the adults walked up the stairs to the Cardiff city hall. The twins were back in the TARDIS, safe and napping. Both the Doctor and the Guardian carried a teleport that would beep if one of the twins woke and needed someone, and could teleport either one of them back to the TARDIS immediately. It had taken the Doctor a couple of months to work out the system with a lot of help from the Guardian. They had only used it a few times and hadn't actually needed it yet, but it was a good system in cases like this, when they were both needed outside the TARDIS.

The group stopped inside the foyer, everyone looking around.

"According to intelligence," Jack said. "The target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family—a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit. Okay, plan of attack: we assume a basic 57-56 strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor."

The Doctor looked over at Jack, offended that he was the one talking strategy. The Guardian smirked.

"Doctor, you go face to face. That'll designate Exit One. Guardian, you'll cover Exit Two. I'll take Exit Three. Mickey, Exit Four. Have you got that?"

"Excuse me." The Doctor said.

Jack looked at him, as did Mickey.

"Who's in charge?"

Jack sighed. "Sorry. Awaiting orders, ma'am."

The Guardian smiled. "I like his plan. Present arms."

The Doctor, Jack, and Mickey all pulled out mobile phones.

"Speed dial?" Jack asked.

There was a chorus of affirmatives. Then everyone noticed that the Guardian hadn't pulled a mobile phone out of her recently returned jacket, but a gun.

"What?" She raised her eyebrows at Jack and Mickey's worried looks. "I've got a mobile too, and it has all your numbers in it."

"I thought the Doctor wanted to talk." Jack said cautiously.

She rolled her eyes. "It's a Venusian stun-gun."

Jack and Mickey both gave quiet sighs of relief. "Then see you in hell." Jack said. He and Mickey went to their exits. The Doctor pulled the Guardian over and gave her a quick kiss.

 _'This is the first time we've been out without kids in a year.'_ He murmured in her mind.

 _'And we're investigating a Slitheen who has become mayor of Cardiff. You really need to work on your date ideas.'_ She kissed him once more and walked to "exit two", a side door nearest to the Lord Mayor's office.

A few minutes later, the Doctor called her telepathically. _'She's going north!"_

 _'You got it, darling.'_ She took off running towards Mickey's exit, at one point jumping over a cleaning trolley.

She reached the car park right outside the Mayor's office, immediately noticing the Doctor wrestling on the balcony with a young man in a suit, and the Slitheen at the bottom of a work ladder.

The Slitheen appeared to pull her earrings off and pressed them together as she ran in the only direction available to her as Jack appeared—towards exit four.

Mickey appeared a moment later, cutting off her final escape.

Unless…

The Guardian suspicions were confirmed when the Slitheen suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"She's got a teleport!" Jack shouted, joining the Guardian. "That's cheating! Now we're never going to get her."

The Guardian smiled as the Doctor and Mickey joined them. "Oh, Jack. I didn't just marry the Doctor for his good looks. He's also very handy with teleports." She held up the monitor/teleporter for the twins to remind him.

With a grin, the Doctor slipped his arm around her waist and held up the sonic screwdriver. One short pulse later and Margaret reappeared, this time running towards them.

She stopped and turned around, teleporting away again.

Another pulse and Margaret appeared again, closer this time. She tried to teleport again, only to be brought back once more, even closer.

This time, she didn't even try to run away. Instead, she bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

"I could do this all day," the Doctor warned.

She held up her hands. "This is persecution. Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

"You tried to kill my wife and destroy this entire planet," the Doctor replied matter-of-factually.

Margaret sighed in frustration. "Apart from that."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

At the Guardian's insistence, the Slitheen, disguised as Margaret Blaine, took them to a conference room inside the city hall. They needed to talk somewhere less open than the car park, but the Guardian was not about to allow a Slitheen near the TARDIS or her children just yet.

"So, you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped," the Doctor summarized as he led the way into the conference room, the Guardian right behind him and holding his hand. "Your family get killed, but you teleport out, just in the nick of time."

The Guardian dragged him over to the scale model of the Slitheen's planned addition to Cardiff. "You have no means of escape, so what do you do? You build a nuclear power station." She glared at the Slitheen as the rest of the company circled the table. "A very generous philanthropic gesture?"

The Slitheen shrugged. "I've learnt the error of my ways."

For the love of Clom, this Slitheen was good. Entirely believable.

"And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift?" The Doctor nodded sarcastically.

Entirely believable, if they hadn't known that piece of information.

"And what rift would that be?" The Slitheen asked too innocently.

"A rift in space and time," Jack replied, leaning closer to the model. "If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go..." He imitated the action of an implosion.

The Guardian winced, the action bringing to mind a similar implosion nearly eight hundred years ago, one caused by the Weapon. An entire planet had died that day, a whole species consumed by a black hole created within their planet. Just because the Daleks had been secretly using their planet to mine for certain elements used in making Dalekanium. The native species hadn't even known.

They died anyway, all to keep the elements from the Daleks. Elements that could be found on hundreds of planets in that star system.

"This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity," the Doctor interrupted her thoughts. He squeezed her hand, and she returned the gesture, grateful for the distraction.

"Isn't anyone checking this sort of thing out?" Mickey asked, looking at the Slitheen.

"We're in Cardiff," the Slitheen snapped bitterly. "London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice—oh." A horrified look crossed her face. "I sound like a Welshman. God help me—I've gone native."

"But why would she do that?" Mickey muttered. "A great big explosion—she'd only end up killing herself. Unless she had transport."

"She's got a name, you know." The Slitheen replied.

"She's not even a she," Mickey snapped. "She's a thing."

"Good point, Ricky-boy." The Doctor released the Guardian's hand to look closer at the model. He glanced up at the young man. "I mean about the transport—she's clever."

He suddenly knocked the model buildings over and pulled out the gray section of the otherwise white model. He held it in his arms, underside up. The Guardian smiled at the electronic panels.

"Tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?" She asked.

The Doctor nodded and grinned at her. "Couldn't have put it better myself. Fantastic."

Jack pushed in and pulled the extrapolator out of the Doctor's hands. The Doctor let it go willingly, his attention drawn to something behind the Guardian. Confused, she turned around to see a banner reading "The Blaidd Drwg Project".

She turned back to him. _'Darling, what's the matter?'_

He didn't answer, instead walking closer to the banner.

She turned back to Jack and Mickey as Jack explained how the extrapolator worked.

"The name of the project," she said to the Slitheen, interrupting Jack.

"Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh. What about it?"

"How did you think of it?" The Doctor asked, still not turning.

"I chose it at random, that's all." he Slitheen walked closer, stopping and holding up her hands when the Guardian pulled out her Venusian stun-pistol. "I don't know. It just sounded good. Does it matter?"

"Blaidd Drwg." The Doctor turned back to the group, glancing at the Guardian.

"Darling, what does it mean?" The Guardian ask, something in her throat tightening at the anxiety she sensed in his stray thoughts and saw in his eyes. How could two words do so much to him?

"Bad wolf." He replied, so quietly the Guardian almost didn't hear him.

She stepped back, feeling like a physical force had struck her. It had been well over a year since she had encountered those words, graffitied on the side of the TARDIS by a kid. She had also encountered those words the last time she was in Cardiff. And hadn't the Werewolf at the Torchwood Estate referred to her as its sister?

"What's so important about those words?" Jack asked.

The Guardian and the Doctor just stared at each other, neither one knowing what to say to the other. Now that she thought of it, there had been numerous other places the Guardian had encountered the words—spoken over the paging system in Van Statten's museum, on posters, more random graffiti. She just hadn't really thought about it until now.

"Doctor, Guardian," Jack said slowly. The concern in his voice made the Gallifreyans look over. "The bomb that was supposed to fall on the Chula ambulance I tried to sell you… it had 'bad wolf' written in German on it."

"It's like they're following us. Everywhere we go." The Doctor mused.

"How could they be following you?" Mickey asked. "Doctor? Dee?"

The Doctor snapped out of his musings so suddenly, it started the Guardian. "Nah, just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio, then hearing it all day. Never mind. Things to do." He walked towards the door.

The Guardian followed behind him reluctantly, not believing his sudden cheery attitude. From Jack and Mickey's expressions, they didn't believe him either.

"Margaret, we're going to take you home," the Doctor said, distracting them all once more.

"Hold on," Jack said. "Isn't that the easy option, like letting her go?"

"Ricky-boy! Want to come with us?"

"To Raxacoricofallapatorius?"

The Guardian pushed aside her bad feelings and smiled at the young man. "Pronouncing that correctly on the first try? I'd say you earned it."

He grinned proudly. "Yeah, I'd say I did."

"They have the death penalty."

The Slitheen's words stopped the Doctor before he reached the door and made them all turn back to her, the mood now deader than she would be once they dropped her off.

"The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty. With no chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. I know the Guardian won't care, but what do you make of that, Doctor? Take me home, and you take me to my death."

"Not my problem." He replied.

The Guardian just looked sadly at her husband, knowing how very much the opposite he felt.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Several hours later, once night had fallen, the Guardian looked up to see the Slitheen walking into the console room from the upper hall, followed by Mickey, who had been assigned to keep an eye on her.

Her mouth tightened in displeasure as she shifted Michael to her other hip. She wanted the Slitheen as far away from her children as possible, but the twins required both her and the Doctor to be present. And there was no chance she was leaving Jack and Mickey alone to deal with their prisoner. At least in the TARDIS, the time machine could shift rooms around to keep the Slitheen away from anywhere she shouldn't be, or lead her back to the console room if she tried to hide.

"This ship is impossible! It's superb!" The Slitheen's praise of the TARDIS set the Guardian even more on edge. "How did you get the outside around the inside?"

"As if you'd be able to understand," the Guardian snapped. "Even if we did tell you."

The Slitheen smiled poisonously at her, then focused her attention on the Doctor, who was leaning against a Y-beam, holding Gwyneth. "I almost feel better about being defeated. I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods."

"Don't worship me, I'd make a very bad god. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters."

"And I'm too busy being a mum," the Guardian added. "How are you doing, Jack?" She called to the man sitting on the floor beside the extrapolator, wiring it into the TARDIS.

"This extrapolator's top of the range," he replied excitedly. "Where did you get it?"

The Slitheen pulled her hand away from the console as it sparked. "Oh, I don't know. Some airlock sale?"

The Guardian rolled her eyes.

"Must've been a great big heist." Jack's tone implied the same disbelief that the Guardian felt. "It's stacked with power."

"But we can use it for fuel?" The Doctor asked.

"It's not compatible, but it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go by morning."

"Then we're stuck here. Overnight." The Doctor sighed.

"I'm in no hurry." The Slitheen commented.

"Of course not," the Guardian snapped at her. "You're going to your death."

"And that makes you my executioners." She replied coldly. "Each and every one of you."

"Well, you deserve it," Mickey said.

The Guardian put one hand on the shoulder of the clearly uncomfortable young man. Because of the Slitheen, he had been forced to launch a missile at Downing Street—which was treason—not knowing if he would be taking innocent lives in the process.

"You're very quick to say so. You're—"

"Someone who has had to make hard decisions to save the world," the Guardian interrupted. She was not about to let this murderer attack Mickey. Not when his actions had saved the Doctor's life. "Save the world from you."

The Slitheen looked slightly thrown off. "Long night ahead," she said finally. She sat down very primly in the seat beside the console. "Let's see who can look me in the eye."

One by one, she stared at Mickey, the Doctor, and Jack until they looked away. Then she came to the Guardian.

Refusing to back down, the Guardian simply stared at the Slitheen without a word. The Weapon had slaughtered innocents for the enjoyment of it; her War persona had killed innocents to spare them having to live with the memories of her slaughters.

This Slitheen, staring at her with a dead woman's eyes, using the identity of a woman she murdered for a disguise, was anything but an innocent.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian brought Mickey with her to put the twins to bed, leaving the Doctor and Jack to continue hooking the extrapolator up to the TARDIS.

"She does deserve it." Mickey finally spoke after she closed the nursery door on the two silent Time Children. "She's a Slitheen."

The Guardian leaned against the wall and looked at the boy sadly. Right now, he reminded her so much of the Doctor. Technically, he had been the one to kill the Slitheen last time they had encountered them, and she could see a very familiar guilt in his eyes.

"Mickey, you know a bit of the Doctor and I's story."

He nodded.

"We've killed so many. One Slitheen barely seems like anything to me. But you're nothing like me. You didn't callously murder thousands at a time and yet not regret it. You did what was necessary to protect your world." She laid one hand on his shoulder. "Now don't let the guilt consume you like it does the Doctor. And don't let the guilt of what might have happened keep you tied to people who don't care."

Michael's sudden cry cut off Mickey's response. The Guardian slipped back into the dimly-lit nursery and gathered her son before he could wake up his sister.

 _'Amadahy, get back in here.'_

At the Doctor's call, she abandoned her attempts to get the boy back to sleep and carried him back to the console room.

The Slitheen was speaking. "There's a little restaurant just 'round the Bay. It became quite a favorite of mine."

"So you want a last meal?" The Guardian walked in, Mickey right behind her.

"Don't I have rights?"

Jack scoffed. "Oh, like she's not going to try to escape."

"Except I can never escape the Doctor, or his Guardian, so where's the danger?" The Slitheen's smile suddenly chilled. "I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"

The Guardian stood beside the Doctor and laid a hand on his back.

"Strong enough," he replied.

"I wonder."

"And you'll keep wondering, Slitheen." The Guardian interjected. "Because it won't be the Doctor you're having dinner with."

 _'Don't argue, Eltanin.'_

 _'I can do this.'_

 _'But I'm making sure that you don't have to.'_

"The Guardian, goddess of Death," the Slitheen mused. "Taking dinner with her next victim."

The Guardian glanced down at her son, noting that he was asleep once again, his head resting against her chest. Good. He didn't need to hear this, but the Slitheen did. "You're not the first person I've carried out a death sentence on, and you're certainly not the first I've taken to dinner."

Her smile matched the Slitheen's for poison. "I assassinated a man during dinner once. Poisoned his dessert. Fellow Time Lord, too, but he was plotting against the Lord President and was already guilty of a Level 5 genocide."

The Slitheen's smile faded.

"Level Five genocide?"

She turned, noting that Mickey and Jack both looked rather ill. Their gaze dropped to the sleeping baby in her arms.

"He committed genocide against a Level 5 planet. Like Earth." The Doctor responded, also looking rather upset.

The Guardian reached up to brush his cheek with with her fingertips. He hated reminders that she hadn't just been a bodyguard or a soldier, but a trained assassin. One of the best in the Universe, as a matter of fact. Without turning her head, she addressed Mickey and Jack. "And the Lord President at the time was the Doctor, by the way."

 _'I don't remember that.'_ He said, lifting a hand to gently rest it on Michael's head.

 _'He was one of the High Council. Long story.'_ She turned back to a now very ill at ease-looking Slitheen. "Now there's just the question of how to make sure you don't escape."

"I've got these." Jack held up a couple of bracelets. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away," he imitated the sound of electricity, miming a shock. "She gets zapped by ten thousand volts."

The Guardian turned back to the Slitheen. "Still want that last meal?"

The Slitheen smiled once more, but this time it trembled.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor very carefully took a still-sleeping Michael from the Guardian. "I should go with you."

She kissed Michael's head. "Nope. When we got married, I promised to protect your conscience. Letting you spend more time with the Slitheen than is necessary would be breaking that vow."

He smiled tensely. If he was completely honest, he was grateful that the Guardian was the one going out to dinner with Margaret. And he hated himself for it. No man should be grateful that his wife was going to have dinner with the person they were taking back to her execution just so he didn't have to. But seeing Margaret sit there, staring at him…

It reminded him far too much of standing in that old barn on the Last Day, with no one else there to talk him out of it or help him do it.

No, there was someone.

Just for a moment, an image of a much younger incarnation of his wife flashed through his memory. Calling herself the "Bad Wolf".

No, that was impossible. That incarnation had been long gone by the time the Last Day came. And she certainly never called herself a "bad wolf". No. It must be the stress making him remember things that never happened. Transpose memories. Invent—

The Guardian kissed him, cutting off his thoughts. _"I love you, Eltanin,"_ she whispered in Gallifreyan, careful that Margaret not hear.

 _"I love you, Amadahy."_ He responded equally as quiet, and kissed her once more.

She joined Margaret and Jack at the door. "Keep out of trouble," she called back.

He grinned. She could handle one Slitheen. And now a part of him wished he could watch her do exactly that.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Slitheen directed them to a nice little bistro. After being shown to a table and ordering wine, the two women were left alone to look over their menus.

"So, tell me, Guardian: why don't you call me Margaret?"

The Guardian didn't even look up. "Because it's not your name. That's the name of the woman you murdered for her skin."

There was silence for a minute. The Guardian could hear the Slitheen shifting, once again thrown off.

Finally, "Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen."

The Guardian looked up now, smiling coldly at the Slitheen. "There's a bit of the truth. So that's what it will say on your death certificate?"

Blon appeared startled.

The Guardian turned away back her menu. "You might as well forget trying to remind me that you're a living creature with a name. I am well aware of that fact, yet I am still taking you back to Raxacoricofallapatorius."

Silence again.

"Oh, look. You can see the little flat I was living in. Just next to the one with the light on."

The Guardian nearly rolled her eyes at how obvious this Slitheen was. Still, she turned, just like Blon wanted her to.

"Two bedrooms, bayside view. I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."

The Guardian turned back and immediately knocked over the poisoned glass of wine. A bit of it ran off the table onto Blon's skirt. "Oh, I am so sorry!" She faked embarrassment.

A waiter came and moved them to another table, accompanied by her very insincere apologies. Several minutes later, they were situated and again looking at their menus.

Blon tried again. "Tell me, Guardian. What do you know of our species?"

"Not a lot," the Guardian lied.

"Did you know, for example—in extreme cases, when her life is in danger, a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own finger?"

At the last word, the Guardian closed her eyes and focused on the sound the dart made as it cut through the air. Her mind raced, calculating the speed and distance, slowing time down for her as she planned her move.

She had done this before. Dozens of times. Usually with energy bullets. A poison dart would be easy.

At the last moment, she flicked her index finger.

It struck the dart, sending it harmlessly to the floor.

The Guardian opened her eyes to see Blon staring at the dart, annoyed. She sarcastically waved. "Time Lady. Hi."

The Slitheen smiled tightly. "Just one more thing."

The Guardian raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Between you and me." Blon glanced around, as though she was going to admit some great secret, and leaned forward.

The Guardian restrained her desire to roll her eyes and leaned forward also.

"Did you know..." Blon snarled and began exhaling a green poisonous gas.

The Guardian sprayed some breath freshener in her mouth, surprising the Slitheen so that she suddenly inhaled the poison. The Slitheen stuck out her tongue and grimaced at the nasty taste.

"That the excess poison could be exhaled thorough the lungs? No, I didn't know that." The Guardian leaned back and picked up her menu again. "Please, tell me more about all the ways you plan to kill me."

"I can change." Blon said suddenly.

"Ha," the Guardian laughed. "Considering that you just tried to kill me three times and we haven't even been here ten minutes, I hardly think you can blame me for not believing you."

"If you can change, why can't I?"

The Guardian froze. There were thousands of reasons why. The most glaring was that, unlike a Slitheen, the Guardian could literally change. She had regenerated since the last time she saw this particular Slitheen.

"There was this girl, just today," Blon continued. "A young thing, something of a danger. She was getting too close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me. I was going to kill her without a thought. And then… I stopped."

The Guardian watched the tiny expressions that passed over the human face that Blon wore. She was telling the truth. But she was also using the truth for her own gain.

"She's alive somewhere right now. She's walking around this city because I _can_ change."

"No."

Blon looked surprised at the monosyllable. "I spared her life!"

"So?" The Guardian shrugged. "You let one go. That's nothing new. Every now and then, a victim is spared—because she smiled, because he's got blue eyes, because they have a child waiting for them at home. That's how you live with yourself while you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, you choose to be kind on a whim."

"Only a killer would know that." Blon replied coldly.

The Guardian set down her menu and raised her chin. "You've heard the stories of me, Blon. During the War I left none alive. Have you ever wondered why that was?"

The Slitheen was silent.

"It was because I know what it's like to live in a nightmare. And I wouldn't condemn another to that fate."

"The legends also said that you had no choice about what you became."

The Guardian's jaw tightened. This Slitheen was _not_ about to use her childhood to excuse murder!

"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice either."

She was.

"I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs!"

"I killed for the first time at the age of ten." The Guardian replied coldly. "Another child, one from a planet that the High Council deemed "less" than Gallifrey. I didn't kill him fast enough, so I was killed for it. Slowly. Painfully. In a manner that makes Raxacoricofallapatorian public execution seem kind." Her smile was bitter. "Don't try to play me for sympathy. You lost all chance for that when you stepped outside my door with me, leaving my husband behind."

Just then, she noticed a noise like thunder in the distance.

"Hush." She said as Blon opened her mouth to speak.

A moment later, the glasses began to vibrate.

Then the windows shattered.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

Things were exploding in the TARDIS. Literally.

"Jack!" The Doctor shouted. "Disconnect the extrapolator!" He attempted to push some buttons, but the console kept sparking and exploding.

The doors opened and the Guardian and Margaret ran in.

"The rift is opening up!" The Guardian hurried over to his side.

"You sure?" If the rift was opening…. All of Cardiff was going to disappear.

She nodded once. "Completely. What the hell is going on here?"

"It's the extrapolator," Jack explained. "I've disconnected it, but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the TARDIS!" He began pulling out wires. At this point, the Doctor didn't care if he damaged something beyond repair, just as long as this was stopped.

The Guardian glanced at the monitor. "Never mind Cardiff. Jack, you were right. This whole planet is about to get pulled into the rift!"

And the TARDIS would be first. The Doctor looked at his wife as she pulled levers, ignoring the explosions in a desperate attempt to save all their lives. Telepathically, he heard Michael and Gwyneth crying in their nursery, but right now neither of them could go comfort them.

A horrible, familiar feeling rose up within him. It was the same one that he felt when Gaiana last lay in his arms, dead before regeneration.

The same one that he felt when he saw Susan's body at her funeral.

The one he felt when he realized that his relationship with his brother had changed.

The one that made him leave when his first wife died.

It was the emotion he felt at the Untempered Schism as a child.

He felt helpless.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian flipped yet another switch on the exploding console.

No change.

She looked up to see Blon's dark grin. Everything connected. "This was you," she spat. "Your plan B, in case someone caught you."

Jack, Mickey, and the Doctor looked at her in surprise, then at the Slitheen.

"Everyone stay far away from her," she warned. Jack and Mickey both moved to stand closer to the Gallifreyans.

"Well, since my attempts to get you to let me go didn't work, I did have to resort to my plan B. I figured that anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator."

"And that Plan B is?" The Guardian asked, telepathically sending a distress signal to the TARDIS. The old girl had to have something she could do.

"The extrapolator was programmed to lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift." She glanced around the TARDIS and smiled. "And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."

"The rift's going to convulse!" Jack shouted at the Slitheen. "You'll destroy the whole planet."

"And you with it!" She moved to stand on the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom."

The Guardian noticed a tiny bit of golden light on the TARDIS console and she smiled. "No, you won't."

Blon looked up at her just as the console opened up. A bright light fell on the Slitheen.

"Because it's not just any old power source," the Doctor said. "It's the TARDIS. Our TARDIS. The best ship in the Universe."

"And you're tearing it apart, exposing the heart of the TARDIS." The Guardian added.

Blon seemed drawn to the light. "It's so… bright," she whispered.

"Look at it, Margaret." The Doctor urged.

"Beautiful." She looked at the Doctor for a moment, tears in her eyes. "Thank you."

The light intensified until everyone closed their eyes. A moment later, it dimmed again. The Slitheen was gone, only an empty skin-suit left.

"Don't look!" The Doctor shouted, going to the other side of console. "Stay there. Close your eyes!"

When the panel closed, the Guardian hurried over to the one beside it. "Mickey, turn all those switches to the right." She pointed at the panel she intended. "Jack, shut everything down!"

After tense minute, the TARDIS went completely dark. As she expected it, the Guardian already held the Doctor's hand, so she just buried her face in his jacket until he nudged her.

The shaking stopped, and the TARDIS turned on as normal again.

She sent a telepathic call to the twins, promising to be there very shortly, then stepped out of the Doctor's arms to hug Mickey, then Jack.

"Nicely done," the Doctor said. "Thank you all."

"So, what happened to the Slitheen?" Mickey asked.

Jack shrugged. "Must've got burnt up. Carried out her own death sentence."

The Doctor moved around the console to where Blon had stood. "No, I don't think she's dead. She looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and even I don't know how strong that is."

"Perhaps..." the Guardian said, realizing what he was thinking. "If it can translate alien languages, it can translate someone's real thoughts and desires." She joined the Doctor.

He crouched down and dug through the remains of the Slitheen's old disguise and found an… egg.

"An egg?" She asked.

"She's an egg?" Mickey repeated, coming over.

"Regressed to her childhood." The Doctor explained.

The Guardian had seen a lot of strange things in her life, but this…

"She's an egg?" Jack joined in, also unable to process it.

The Doctor grinned. "She can start again. Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"

"Or she might be worse," Jack pointed out.

The Guardian was inclined to agree with Jack, but she nodded. "That's her choice, though." Well, it seemed that Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen was going to get her chance to change after all.

"She's an egg." Mickey said once more.

"She's an egg." The Doctor stood and moved over the monitor, carrying the egg. "We're all powered up. We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy." He set the egg on the console.

The Guardian smiled at Mickey. "Still want to come with us? It will just be the one trip, but you get see another planet."

Mickey hesitated, rubbing his temple with a wince, almost as though he was in pain. "Sure. I can do the one trip."

"Right then," Jack moved back over to the extrapolator. "Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius. Now you don't often get to say that."

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance." The Doctor smiled at the Guardian.

The Guardian smiled and gave him a quick kiss. "Currently, I think our more pressing business is getting our children back to bed."

After sending the TARDIS into the Vortex, the Doctor and Guardian hurried back to the twin's room to settle down their own second chance.

Both twins were out of sorts, but not from fear. They were upset that they missed the excitement.

The Guardian sighed and rubbed her forehead. Just her luck.

Both twins had inherited their father's love of danger.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Oh, my word! Just two more episodes left of this story! Ah!**

 **But hey, I had a ton of fun writing the restaurant scene!**

 **So, next time we have the beginning of the end.**

Review notes:

Thunderstrike16—Great guess, but no. I can say that we have met Ariana before, and we will meet her a few more times before she makes her proper appearance in the series.

Ronin Keshin—Thanks! It's been a lot of fun, switching episodes around to make it work with my narrative.

Engine of a Dream—Yes, poor Guardian. That really would be horrible. Well, as you can see, the Doctor's only managed to stay out of trouble for a year. I originally planned to have the Guardian makes a comment about that in the scene where the Doctor sees the newspaper with Margaret's picture on it, but felt it didn't fit with the mood of the scene.

One last thing:

I had set a goal last week that I wanted 30 reviews by the end of the book, and I got the last ones I needed in one chapter! So, as a thank-you, here's a sneak peak at the next book, _The Tale of Two Time Lords and an Immortal_.

 _"_ _That thing nearly exploded," the Doctor insisted. "You might as well have stepped in a blender."_

 _Professor Lazarus scoffed and Lady Thaw frowned. "You are not qualified to comment," she snapped._

 _"No, but I am." The Guardian pulled her credentials out of her clutch purse. "Allegra Shannon, Torchwood Institute. My associate Mr. Smith," she gestured to Mickey, "and I are here to investigate whether or not your device is a danger to the public or not. After what I just saw, you should hope that we find nothing else that gives us cause for concern, otherwise we have every right to seize all your equipment and research." She shot Lady Thaw a falsely sweet smile._

 _Professor Lazarus straightened and tried to give the Guardian a placating smile. "There is no need for that, Miss Shannon. It was a simple engineering issue."_

 _"If I hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded." the Doctor broke in, his voice cold, though whether that was from Lazarus's careless attitude or the reminder of Torchwood, the Guardian wasn't certain._

 _"Then I thank you, Doctor." Professor Lazarus smiled tensely yet again. "But what happened in that capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen, Miss Shannon. No more, no less."_

 _The Guardian returned his tense smile, doubtful._


	15. Chapter 15: Bad Wolf

**I don't own Doctor Who, sadly. I do own the Guardian, though.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

He suddenly woke up on the floor of a small cupboard. "What is it?" He scrambled to his feet. "What's happening?"

Frantically, he felt the walls. There was something he needed to get back to. Someone. No, more than just one someone. Pictures flashed through his mind. An absolutely gorgeous redhead. Two toddlers, a boy and a girl. A dark-haired man. A bright blue box.

He came to the fourth wall. The door. It swung open and he fell out into another room, thankfully a much larger one.

Or perhaps not. The clash of colors intensified his headache.

A blonde woman appeared beside him. "I don't believe it! Why'd they put you in there? They never said you were coming." She bent down to help him stand.

"What happened?" He asked. He grabbed her arms for support. "I was..." Where had he been?

Another image, this time of a large room that seemed unusual flashed in his memory. He had been with the redhead. His… his wife. He smiled a tiny bit. That piece of information fit.

"Careful now," the blonde warned.

He took a step forward and promptly fell back down.

"Oh! Mind yourself! That's the transmat—it scrambles your head. I was sick for days."

He tried standing again, once again leaning on the blonde for support, despite how wrong it felt. There was only one woman that he wanted to lean against.

"All right?"

He fought to get his bearings, despite his spinning vision.

"So, what's your name then, sweetheart?"

What was his name? The name "the Guardian" floated through his head. No—that wasn't right. That must be the name of his wife. He nearly answered "Eltanin", but something told him he shouldn't. What did he call himself?

"The Doctor, I think." That sounded right. "I was…er…I don't know. What happened? How?"

"You got chosen." The blonde nodded, a strange look on her face.

The Doctor frowned. "Chosen for what?"

"You're a housemate." Now the blonde smiled. "You're in the House. Isn't that brilliant?"

The Doctor's frown deepened with his confusion and he glanced around the psychedelic room. A young man and woman stood beside a television.

"That's not fair!" The man whined. "We've got eviction in five minutes! I've been here for all nine weeks, I've followed the rules, I haven't had a single warning, and then he comes swanning in.

While the young black woman said something about protesting and painting the walls—which, quite honestly needed to be a more muted tone than bright green—the Doctor looked around again, finally noticing the cameras and barred doorways. A rhythm appeared in his pounding headache. So it was a song? If the confusion of noise could be called that.

A computerized voice spoke, "Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?"

He looked around. A buzz drew his attention to a silver door with an eye on it. Beside the door was a light that looked like another eye. He walked over to the door and opened it.

The room was dimly lit other than a light over a bright red chair, which looked more like a vaguely shaped cushion. He sat down in the chair.

The voice spoke again. "You are live on channel Forty-Four Thousand. Please, do not swear."

He raised his eyebrows. "You have got to be kidding."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian woke up in a dimly lit room. She sat up suddenly. There was just enough light to keep her from panicking. But where was the Doctor and Michael and Jack? She looked around.

There was a stabbing pain in her head. She pressed her hands against the side of her head. "Dear Omega, I hate transmats!"

Someone, a man appeared beside her. "It's all right."

The Guardian pulled away from him. His tone was wrong. It was predatory.

"The transmat does your head in," he continued. "Get a bit of amnesia. What's your name?"

"The Guardian," she murmured, looking around again. "Where the hell is my husband?"

The man ignored her question. "Just remember: do what the android says. Don't provoke it. The android's word is law."

"Well, clearly it's never met me." She had destroyed hundred of androids in almost as many different ways. She felt her arms and sides, noting that she still wore her jacket. Good.

"Positions, everyone! Thank you!" A woman yelled.

"Come on, hurry up." The man reached to help her up, but the Guardian pulled away again and stood herself. Her head was spinning and she felt sicker than she ever had while pregnant, but she could still stand on her own. She'd done so in worse circumstances.

"That's enough chat!" The woman shouted again. "Positions! Final call! Good luck!"

The Guardian forced herself to walk over to a semi circle of podiums. In front of the podiums, a group of people stood around a robot. She noted a podium with the name "Guardian" on it, but none of the other names looked familiar.

What in the name of Rassilon had her husband gotten her into?

The Guardian was the last to take her place, beside the man whose name was apparently Roderick.

The woman, who seemed to be a manager of some sort, shouted again. "Android activated!"

The robot turned on. "Welcome… to _The Weakest Link_!"

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor scanned the door with the sonic screwdriver. With the return of his memories had come an almost consuming desire to escape. He had to find the Guardian, the twins, and Jack. There was something very, very wrong. He just couldn't put his finger on what.

Other than the transmat, of course.

"I can't open it," he growled in frustration.

"It's got a deadlock seal," the blonde supplied. "Ever since Big Brother 504, when they all walked out. You must remember that."

He walked over to an alcove with a large mirror. "What about this?"

"Oh, that's Exoglass." The human followed him over. "You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through."

The sonic's scan confirmed her words. "Don't tempt me," he muttered.

The blonde was mercifully silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice had dropped. "I know you're not supposed to talk about the outside world, but you must've been watching. Do people like me?"

The Doctor looked over at her, annoyed by the continued intrusion.

"Lynda—Lynda with a 'y', not Linda with an 'I'. She got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera. Am I popular?"

"I don't remember." He nearly snapped at her.

Lynda leaned forward, almost excited. "Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing? Some people get this far just because they're insignificant. Doesn't anybody notice me?"

He glanced at her again, only now noticing how important this was to her. For whatever reason, it really mattered to her what the viewers thought. "No. You're...you're nice." That much appeared to be true. "You're sweet. Everybody thinks you're sweet."

"Oh?" She smiled, flustered. "Is that right? Is that what I am? Oh, no one's ever told me that before. Am I sweet? Really?"

"Yeah." He smiled at her. "Dead sweet."

"Thank you." She looked away, biting her lip.

Oh, no. Better change the subject quickly. He glanced around rather desperately, once again noting the spot where red lines marked where a door should be. "It's a wall. Isn't there supposed to be a garden out there or something?" He headed that direction to get a closer look.

Lynda followed him. "Don't be daft. No one's got a garden anymore. Who's got a garden?" She gasped. "Don't tell me you've got a garden!"

"No, I've just got the TARDIS." Which had a garden in it...somewhere. Or maybe there wasn't one anymore. No, there was. The Guardian loved it.

"You've remembered?" Lynda cut into his quite pleasant dwellings on the very few times he had visited the garden with his wife. "So what happened? Where did they get you?"

"We'd just dropped Mickey off after a visit to Raxacoriofallapatorius. Then we went to Kyoto—Japan in 1336. We'd only just escaped." He grinned. "The Guardian nearly killed me for that one."

Granted, how was he supposed to know that by accepting the Emperor's honors that meant he was also marrying the man's daughter?

"We were back in the TARDIS—the Guardian had just come back from putting Gwyneth to bed, and then there was this light—" He broke off as he realized that he had been holding Michael when the light appeared.

Damn! How the hell had he forgotten that?

"That's the transmat beam." Lynda spoke, unaware of his distress. "That's how they pick the housemates."

He forced himself to walk towards the center of the room, to force himself out of his panic. Panicking wouldn't help him find his son or his wife sooner. "Lynda, it's worse than that. I'm not just a passing traveler. No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was fifteen million times more powerful, which means this isn't just a game. There's something else going on."

He moved over to one of the cameras, feeling the fury of the Oncoming Storm rising. "Here's the latest update from the Big Brother House—I'm getting out. I'm going to find my family. And then, I'm going to find you."

He jabbed the glass with his finger, just to punctuate his point.

Gwyneth probably would have been safe, not being in the console room. But wherever the Guardian and Michael and Jack and the TARDIS were, he was going to find them.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

As the floor manager counted down, the Guardian assessed the situation. She'd never watched _The Weakest Link_ , so she had no idea what it was about. She could only guess that it was a trivia show.

"Let's play _The Weakest Link_." The android's statement was accompanied by dramatic theme music. "Start the clock. Agorax, the name of which basic food stuff is an anagram of the word 'beard'?"

The man stared at the android, wide-eyed—clearly, he was terrified. "Bread."

"Correct. Fitch, in the Pan Traffic Calendar, which month comes after Hoob?"

Damn. She didn't know that one. And this appeared to be the easy rounds.

"Is it...Clavadoe?"

"No, Pandoff."

Well, at least the Guardian wasn't the only one. She noted Fitch's distraught look. Her reaction was far too terrified for this to be just a simple game.

"Guardian, in math, what is 258 minus 158?"

"One hundred." The Guardian replied, barely even looking at the android.

"Correct. Roderick."

"Bank."

"Which letter of the alphabet appears in the word dangle but not in the word gland?"

Roderick thought for a moment. "E."

"Correct. Collen, in social security, what D is the name of the payment given to Martian Drones?"

"Default." Colleen sighed, relieved. She must have known that one for certain.

"Correct. Broff, the Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of which famous Old Earth Institute?"

Torchwood. The Guardian knew that one. She and the Doctor had visited the Pyramid while they were still engaged. Lovely place. Other than the sand piranhas.

Broff, on the other hand, didn't know Torchwood's name, calling it 'Touchdown'.

"Agorax, in language, all five examples of which type of letter appear in the word 'facetious'?"

"Vowels."

"Correct. Fitch, in biology, which blood cells contain iron? Red or white?"

Whose biology?

"Um...white," Fitch answered.

"No, red. Guardian, in the holovid series 'Jupiter Rising', the Grexnik is married to whom?"

The Guardian glared at the android. "I have far better things to do with my life than watch what you humans call soap operas."

The looks of horror on the other contestants faces confirmed her suspicions. They were going to die.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor scanned the door disguised as a section of wall. If he could just trigger an isolated sonic shift in the molecules, the door would disintegrate.

"Doctor, they said all the housemates must gather on the sofa," Lynda was still pleading. "You've got to."

"I'm busy getting out, thanks." He replied.

"But if you don't obey, then all the housemates get punished."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and stopped, turning towards the three humans. "Well, maybe I'll be voted out, then."

The man scoffed. "How stupid are you? You've only just joined, you're not eligible."

The Doctor flopped down in the purple sofa, next to the other young woman.

"And don't try anything clever, or we all get it in the neck," Lynda warned.

The Doctor shook his head. Why on Earth would anyone volunteer for this?

At the sound of the computer's voice, the young woman beside him grabbed his hand tightly. He tried to get his hand free, until he noticed that everyone was holding hands.

"Big Brother House, this is Davina Droid. Crosbie, Lynda, and Strood, you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House is..."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at the apprehension on their faces.

"Crosbie!"

The young woman beside him gasped, and Lynda burst into tears.

The Doctor leaned back, trying to get as far away from all the human emotions as he could while remaining on the sofa.

"Crosbie, you have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you."

The trio of humans stood and walked over to the door. The Doctor shook his head. Humans. Always more emotional than the moment called for.

He heard the door open and glanced back. "Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House." Lynda and the man made an arch with their arms, and Crosbie walked through it and out the door. They waved, and the door closed.

When Lynda started sobbing in the man's arms, the Doctor sat up. This really was ridiculous, even for humans. "It's only a game show. She'll make a fortune on the outside. Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that. She'll be laughing."

Lynda wiped her tears and gave him a confused look. "What do you mean on the outside?"

A video image of Crosbie appeared on the television. She was standing in a short white corridor.

"Here we go." Strood and Lynda hurried back over to the couch.

Crosbie stood there for several second, nothing happened.

"What are they waiting for?" The Doctor asked, annoyed. "Why don't they just let her go?" Must they draw this on? He had far better things to do right now.

"Stop it. It's not funny." Lynda pleaded.

"Eviction in five...four…three...two...one."

Suddenly, a beam from the ceiling hit Crosbie. She stiffened, energy going all over her as though she was being electrocuted. A moment later, a puff of smoke was all that was left.

The Doctor sat up numbly. "What was that?" That couldn't be…

"Disintegrator beam." Strood said quietly, confirming the Doctor's suspicions.

He looked at them, stunned even after what he had just seen.

"She's been evicted," Lynda said tearfully. "From life."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The time for voting had come. Knowing what was going to happen, the Guardian chose carefully. Broff.

"So, Guardian, what do you actually do?" The android asked when they had all revealed their votes.

"I'm a professional bodyguard." She replied smoothly, noting the looks of surprise on the other contestants faces. It was a lie, but she was definitely not bringing her children into this.

"For whom?"

"The Face of Boe." Hopefully no one checked that out. The Face of Boe wouldn't be meeting her for another five billion years.

"Why Broff?"

"He's a tactical disadvantage," she replied. "With three questions wrong, he's the weakest link."

"Correct. Broff _was_ the weakest link."

"No! Please!" Broff cried.

"Broff, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!"

The android's "mouth" opened and a barrel appeared.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Are you insane?" The Doctor knew he shouldn't shout at the humans. But for the Omega's sake, his wife and son were somewhere in these games! "You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? Is it worth dying for?"

"You're talking like we've got a choice!" Lynda shouted back, standing.

"But I though you had to apply."

"Don't be so stupid," Strood snapped. "That's how they played it centuries back."

The Doctor looked at Strood in shock.

Lynda continued, "You get chosen whether you like it or not. Everyone on Earth is a potential contestant; the transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's nonstop. There are sixty Big Brother houses running all at once."

"How many? _Sixty_?"

"They've had to cut back," Strood commented. "It's not what it was."

"It's a charnel house!" The Doctor shouted. "What about the winners? What do they get?"

"They get to live," Lynda said quietly.

"Is that it?"

"Well, isn't that enough?"

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, then moved over to the door. "I have to find my wife. Our son is somewhere out there. He's only a year old."

Twin gasps made him turn around. Both Lynda and Strood wore matching expressions of horror.

"What?" His already bad feeling was getting worse.

Strood spoke haltingly. "The…the transmats do take children...sometimes." He looked at Lynda for a moment, then back at the Doctor, then away. "But..." He broke off.

The Doctor looked at Lynda.

She started crying. "Doctor, they never survive it."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian pulled out a gun and shot the android before it could fire. Its head exploded.

The humans, contestants and crew alike, stared at her in shock.

Then all hell broke lose.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor stared at them. Michael. Dead.

No, he refused to believe it. Time Lords were hardier than humans. He had to have survived it.

"Lynda," he said coldly. "That contestant who was forcibly evicted—what exactly did she do?"

"Damage to property." Lynda replied.

"What? Like this?" He sonicked one of the cameras, making it spark madly.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The contestants all ran for the main door, the crew going after them. A couple of male crew members started for the Guardian.

She held up her gun again. "I really wouldn't do that if I were you."

They stopped and held their hands up.

"Now, if you want to live, show me where there's another door."

"You can't get out," one of the men replied.

The Guardian smirked. "You haven't seen me do anything yet."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"The Doctor, you've broken the House Rules. Big Brother has no choice but to evict you. You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you!"

The Doctor leaped up from the couch. "That's more like it!" The wait had been too long, even if it had been only two minutes. He stopped in front of the door. "Come on, then. Open up!"

"You're mad!" Lynda followed him.

"I reckon he's a plant," Strood said. "He was only brought in to stir things up."

The door opened and the Doctor slipped into the white corridor as quickly as he could. The door closed immediately behind him.

"Come on then, disintegrate me!" He urged. "Come on, what're you waiting for?"

He waited, desperately hoping that his guess was right. Granted, if it wasn't then he wouldn't have to endure whatever end the Guardian would come up with for his stupidity.

"Eviction in five… four… three… two… one."

The machine powered down.

The Doctor laughed with well-disguised relief. "I knew it!" He turned to the camera, so he could speak to Lynda and Strood. "You see, someone brought me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano. They want me alive!"

Now he turned to the outer door. "Now then, maybe security isn't as tight this end."

He glanced at the camera again. "Are you following this? I'm getting out!"

One pulse from the sonic screwdriver, and the door slid open. Behind him, the other door opened. He turned to see Lynda. "Come with me."

She glanced back inside the room, probably at Strood. He was a rule-follower. No doubt he'd disapprove.

"Stay in there, you've got a 50-50 chance of disintegration," he reminded her. She wanted to go, he could see it. "Stay with me, I promise, I'll get you out alive. Come on!"

She shook her head. "No, I can't. I can't."

"Lynda, you're sweet. From what I've seen of your world, do you think anyone votes for sweet?"

He saw her hesitate, and he held out his hand. With a small smirk, Lynda joined him. He pulled the door the rest of the way open and they stepped out into a dimly lit room.

A very familiar, dimly lit room.

"Hold on. I've been here before. This is Satellite Five."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

One of the crew members gave the Guardian a significant look and tilted his head in the direction behind her.

"Thanks ever so much." The Guardian pulled a stun pistol out of her jacket and shot them both, then ran for the door.

Working quickly and watching her over shoulder, she tore into the panel beside the door. She crossed a few wires, ignoring the electric shocks that seemed to be the computer's rather weak defense against people like her, and the doors opened.

She slipped through into a large room. Like the game room, it was dimly lit, but a light shone on one particular section of wall.

The Guardian stumbled back against the again-closed doors.

In big, block letters, words painted on the wall announced who owned Satellite Five now.

The Bad Wolf Corporation.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor sonicked a door, opening it. "No guards," he observed. "That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth." He looked around for anything that might help him. If he was going to find his son, he needed to know where Michael would have been transmatted to.

He knew the Guardian could handle herself, even though he couldn't contact her—something in the walls seemed to act as a telepathic dampener. Which made no sense, as humans were barely telepathic. The Guardian couldn't even read their stray thoughts.

Lynda followed him around. "No one's called it Satellite Five in ages. It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

He glanced at his watch. "A hundred years exactly. It's the year 2-0-0-1-0-0." He scanned another part of the wall, noting the strange readings. "I was here before—Floor 139. The Satellite was broadcasting the news channels back then." He grinned, remembering that particular adventure—and the wedding that followed it.

He glanced up and noticed Lynda's expectant look. He cleared his throat and continued. "Had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy. Gave them a hand, home in time for tea."

"A hundred years ago? What, you were here a hundred years ago?"

"Yep!" He went over to a door, and scanned it. He got the same unusual readings.

"You're looking good on it," Lynda said.

"I moisture." He played with the sonic a bit, trying to confirm the readings. "Funny sorts of readings. All kinds of energy. The place is humming. It's weird." He looked around, a sinking feeling in his chest. "This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?" He walked over to door, placing his hand on the scanner.

"I don't know. I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside."

The scanner didn't work, so he moved to sonicking the door. "My family was traveling with me. They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"

"I don't know. They could've been allocated anywhere. There's a hundred different games."

"Like what?" A part of him didn't want to know. But he needed to know.

Lynda thought for a moment. "Well, there's ten floors of Big Brother. There's a different house behind each of those doors." She gestured to the other doors. "And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's nonstop. There's _Call My Bluff—_ with real guns."

The Guardian could survive that.

" _Countdown_ , where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off."

Easy.

" _Ground Force_ , which is a nasty one. You get turned into compost."

That one was a bit concerning.

"Erm, _Wipeout_. Speaks for itself."

The Guardian could do it. She was trained to dodge lasers and energy bullets.

"Oh, and _Stars In Their Eyes—_ literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded."

"And you watch this stuff?" The Doctor asked. Unbelievable. And Michael was trapped somewhere in there to—if he was even still alive. The Doctor flinched and forced himself to keep believing that he would find Michael, safe and sound.

Lynda shrugged. "Everyone does. How come you don't?"

"Never paid for my license."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, my god! You get executed for that."

He held up the sonic screwdriver and smirked. "Let them try."

"You keep saying things that don't make sense. Who are you though, Doctor? Really."

"It doesn't matter." He moved to the next door, to try that scanner.

"Well, it does to me. I've just put my life in your hands."

"I'm a traveler, wandering past. Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life with my wife and our twins." He sighed when the door didn't work yet again. "But first of all, we've got to concentrate on the getting out. And to do that, you've got to know your enemy. Who's controlling it? Who's in charge of the satellite now?"

"Hold on."

The Doctor stepped away from the door to see Lynda move over to a light breaker. It illuminated a sign reading, Bad Wolf Corporation.

"Your lords and masters."

He stared at the words.

No. Not here. Not now.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian had made it to Floor 299 went she ran into Jack. Literally.

"Guardian!" The man shouted in surprise.

"Shut up!" She hissed. "I haven't seen any security, but that doesn't mean much." Humans. Always missing the important but subtle details.

She glanced at the modified gun that he carried and nodded approvingly. "Have you found the Doctor and Michael?"

Jack gestured to the device on his wrist. "I should be able to scan for them if they're outside of the games. What about Gwyneth?" He asked as he proceeded to scan for the Doctor.

"She should still be in the TARDIS," the Guardian replied. That's what she hoped.

The device whirled.

"Two hearts!" Jack said. "I've got him!" He put his hand in the scanner cradle and the lift doors opened.

The Guardian stepped into the lift, now feeling desperate to hold her son again. When the lift doors opened again, she found that she could sense the Doctor once more. "Follow me. Be quiet."

She hurried through the floor, until she heard voices in another room. "This way." She pulled Jack into an observation room.

"History's gone wrong again." Her hearts spend up at the sound of the Doctor's voice. "This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. I don't understand. Last time I was here I put it right."

The Guardian frowned, also not understanding.

The human girl beside him spoke. "No, but that's when it first went wrong. A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels, they just shut down overnight."

Now the Guardian winced. Of course…

"But that was me. I did that." The Doctor said.

"There was nothing left in their place. No information. The whole planet just froze. The government, the economy—they collapsed. That was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."

"I made this world."

The Guardian barely heard the Doctor, but she definitely sensed his guilt. " _We_ made this world." She strode into the room, Jack following. "I of all people should have known that you can't take a society from subjugated to independent in one day without it collapsing."

"Guardian?" The Doctor whirled around.

The Guardian noticed his empty arms. "Doctor, where the hell is Michael?"

At the Doctor's stricken look, the Guardian's jaw tightened. Whoever stole her son was going to die. "We're going to Floor 500. That's the control room." She stormed out of the room, barely even noticing that the Doctor, Jack, and the human followed her. "The computer system is too complicated for a simple broadcaster. Something else is being transmitted from here."

The group crowded into the lift, the Guardian taking the front position. She pulled out a gun.

 _'Amadahy, don't.'_ She heard the Doctor plead in her head.

 _'Our son is in danger, Eltanin!_ '

She felt his hesitance, and she looked at him. _'What is it?'_

 _'Amadahy…'_ He sighed. _'Be careful.'_

She knew exactly what he meant. He was afraid for her, that she would break, or do something that she regretted. Even after all this time, he still didn't understand.

Regret came from letting a hot temper get the best of you. But after so many years of training, her temper wasn't like fire, as his was. No, her anger was ice—cold, calculating, patient. It was her pain that he needed to worry about.

Anger hadn't made the Weapon.

Pain did.

The lift doors opened. The Guardian strode out, guns up and ready.

Jack followed her. "Okay, move away from the desk!"

The staff moved to do exactly as Jack told them. The Guardian glanced around the room, taking special note of the woman who appeared to be wired into the computer. She was counting off numbers, her skin so pale it looked like she hadn't seen the sun in at least a couple of decades.

She lowered her guns, but didn't put them away. "Jack, secure the exits. There will be guards on the way up. Doctor, get inside the computers." She turned to the terrified staff. "There were four of us transmatted in. I want to know where the fourth is."

"There—there wasn't a fourth." A man spoke. He appeared to be the leader of the staff.

"What?" The Guardian asked coldly.

"I'm telling the truth! We didn't put you in the games; the computer did. There was only the three of you."

"And the computer is her?" The Guardian jerked her head at the woman.

"Yes! But she can't answer you!"

The Guardian raised an eyebrow, her glare prompting the man to continue.

"The Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain. You're not a member of staff, so she doesn't recognize your existence."

"Door's sealed." Jack called. "We should be safe for about ten minutes."

The Guardian jerked her head in a nod. "Thank you, Captain. Keep an eye on them."

The staff's leader spoke. "Um… sir, ma'am, that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station, I think you're right. I've kept a log—unauthorized transmats, encrypted signals—it's been going on for years."

"Show the Doctor," the Guardian spoke, just as a woman yelled, "You're not allowed in there. Archive Six is out of bounds."

The Guardian turned to see Jack beside a door. He held up his makeshift gun. "Do I look like an out of bounds sort of guy?" He opened the door and stepped inside.

A moment later, "Doctor, Guardian! Come here!"

"Stay here," the Guardian said to the Doctor. She hurried over to the Archive, to find the TARDIS parked inside.

Jack was already at the monitor.

"Scan for life signals?" Perhaps the TARDIS had relocated Michael to keep him safe.

"Just us and Gwyneth." A smile flickered on Jack's face. "Gwyn's fine, just like you thought. She's still asleep."

The Guardian breathed a sigh of relief that her daughter was safe, only to tense again. Her son was still missing.

She grabbed the monitor/teleporter for Gwyneth and walked back outside, just as the Station's power dropped.

"Just the solar flares," the man said. "They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quite normal."

"Guardian."

The Guardian looked over at the Controller.

"Guardian? Guardian? Where's the Guardian?"

"I'm here." She walked closer, curious. How did this woman know her if what the staff claimed was true?

The Controller spoke quickly. "Can't see. I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you. Shining and golden."

"What do you want?" Her voice trembled a little with the dread that sped through her. Shining and golden. It sounded like her nightmares.

"Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me. My masters, they always listen but they can't me now. The sun—the sun is so bright."

"Who are your masters?" The Guardian asked, flinching at the word.

"They wired my head. The name's forbidden. They control my thoughts. My masters. I had to be careful. They monitor transmissions but they don't watch the programmes. I could hide you and your companions inside the games. Knew that you would find me."

"Then where is my son?" She snapped.

"Doesn't matter."

The Guardian raised one of her guns again. "I'll ask again. Where. Is. My. Son?"

"They've been hiding. My masters, hiding in the dark space, watching and spacing the Earth—so…so...so many years. Always been there, guiding humanity. Hundreds and hundreds of years."

"Never mind them. Answer me!"

"They wait and plan and grown in numbers. They're strong now. So strong, my masters."

The Guardian sighed in frustration. Right now, she had no desire to lead a coup.

"But speak of you. My masters, they fear the Guardian."

Suddenly, the power came back on. The Controller resumed counting.

"Your son..." One of the female staff spoke. "How old is he?"

The Guardian turned to her as she replied, "A year."

The devastation on the staff's faces made her hearts beat faster. "I'm so sorry…but children never survive the transmat."

The Guardian stood in stunned silence for a moment. No. It wasn't possible. Her son couldn't be _dead_.

Suddenly, it was like her brain accepted the fact. "No!" She raised her gun and pointed it at the woman who had spoken.

Before she could pull the trigger, her hand was suddenly shoved upwards. The Doctor appeared directly in front of her, pulling her against him. She dropped her blaster and clung to his jacket, sobbing near-uncontrollably as she collapsed, the Doctor guiding her down. She heard the Doctor whispering her name in Gallifreyan, but she ignored him.

All the things that she had wanted to do with Michael… but now he was gone. Despite their careful life—the last week not withstanding—despite all their precautions, he was still dead.

What sort of guardian was she is she couldn't even keep her own children safe?

Then she heard Jack's voice, "Michael might still be alive!"

She pulled out of the Doctor's arms. "What?"

Jack grinned. "The TARDIS tracked Michael's transmat to a nearby area of space. She wasn't able to get full coordinates, but there's enough to figure out that there's something there. Hidden."

"He's alive?" The Guardian repeated, collapsing back against the Doctor.

"There's a chance." Jack cautioned.

"That's all we need." The Guardian pushed herself to her feet. "Everyone get to work. We're going to get the rest of those coordinates." The Controller's masters must be the ones that had Michael. It seemed that she was leading a revolution anyway. "My son is out there somewhere, and by Gallifrey, I'm going to find him."

"Guardian..." The Controller spoke. "Coordinates 5.6.1—"

"Don't!" The Doctor shouted. "The solar flare's gone. They'll hear you!"

"—.434. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Sigma 77..."

Suddenly, electricity sparked and the Controller disappeared with a scream and smoke.

"No!" The Guardian shouted. The woman could have given them the complete coordinates!

"They took her," the Doctor whispered.

An idea struck her. The Guardian whirled around to face the staff member who had done most of the talking earlier. "You—you said that you kept a record of unauthorized transmats."

He nodded stiffly.

"Show the Captain. Jack, you might find the final numbers in there."

Jack and the staff member hurried off to do just that.

"And no flirting!" She shouted after them.

The Guardian paced as she waited, until the Doctor came over and pulled her into his arms. "I just checked on Gwyneth. She's still sleeping."

She smiled thinly.

"We'll get Michael back, Guardian. I promise."

But in what condition? One of her nightmares flashed in her memory. The one of her holding her dead son before he was snatched away from her.

"Guardian! Doctor!" Jack shouted. "I've got something!"

Hand-in-hand, the Gallifreyans ran over to join Jack, two staff members, and the blonde.

"The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system." An image of empty space came up on the larger holo-screen.

"There's nothing there." The female staff member, the one who had tried to keep Jack out of the Archive, spoke.

"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does." The Guardian replied, understanding dawning. "Underneath the transmission, there's another signal."

"Doing what?"

"Hiding whatever's out there," the Doctor said. "Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible." He bent over the computer and began typing. "If I cancel the signal..."

The Guardian stiffened when a very familiar looking ship appeared. The Doctor straightened, reaching for her hand again. The image pulled out, revealing many, many more ships.

"That's impossible," Jack breathed. "I know those ships. They were destroyed!"

"Obviously they survived." The Doctor replied weakly.

The Guardian squeezed his hand, even though she knew it wouldn't help. After everything, they were back.

"Who did?" The blonde human asked. "Who are they?"

"Two hundred ships," the Guardian counted. "More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about a half a million of them."

This was even worse than her nightmares.

"Half a million what?"

"Daleks," the Guardian spat.

Her son was surrounded by Daleks.

The holoscreen's view changed. Three Daleks surrounded Michael, who sat on the floor of the ship. He had clearly been crying for a while, if his heaving shoulders were any indication. The Guardian tried to lunge forward, the Doctor pulling her back by wrapping his arms around her waist. She could feel him shaking.

How had she not felt Michael's distress? Her maternal telepathic bond should have enabled her to keep in contact with him no matter what.

Unless the game rooms weren't the only places shielded?

 _~"I will talk to the Doctor and the Guardian."~_

"What makes you think we want to talk?" The Doctor replied coldly.

 _~"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."~_

"Oh, really?" The Guardian hissed. "What makes you so certain?"

 _~"_ _We have the young Time Lord. You will both obey, or he will be exterminated."~_

"Harm my son and I will burn your world."

At her cold proclamation, everyone but the Doctor leaned slightly away from her. She didn't even have to look at them to know that they were frightened. Even Jack. But for once, she didn't care.

 _~"_ _Threats are meaningless. You will obey_ _."~_

"No." The Guardian replied simply. These Daleks should know better than to play power games with her.

 _~"What is the meaning of this negative?"~_

"It means no." The Doctor affirmed.

 _~"But he will be destroyed!"~_ The Daleks almost seemed frantic now.

"No!" The Doctor shouted. "Because this is what we're going to do—we're going to rescue our son. The Guardian and I are going to rescue him from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then we're going to save the Earth. And then, just to finish off, we're going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

 _~"But you have no weapons! No defenses! No plan!"~_

"But he's got me." The Guardian smiled darkly. "I've killed millions of your kind. Half a million should be easy. You just threatened the life of my son. Big mistake."

In Gallifreyan, she added, _"Wesen? Everything's going to be okay. Maiteria and Paitare will be there soon."_

The Doctor cut off the transmission.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **Just one more chapter! Are you guys freaking out yet? Next chapter, I'll be posting the description of _The Tale of Two Time Lords and An Immortal_ , and also about when you can be looking forward to it. **

**Next time: _Here comes the Bad Wolf..._**

Notes on Reviews:

Ronin Kenshin: Nine was Mr. Grumpy. He just was. Granted, he had a reason to be—he just had to destroy his entire planet and people because of a war that could have been prevented if he had followed the orders given to him back in his fourth incarnation and destroyed the Daleks. Still, I've had a lot of fun writing him as a happier person, bringing forward traits that are only hinted at in the series. That will actually be a thing that I keep on doing—I wonder what side of Ten I'll be highlighting?

NicoleR85: I can say that Mickey will not be a companion, though he will be present in the next book. It's mostly going to be following Series 3, though a few episodes of Series 2 will appear in the beginning.


	16. Chapter 16: The Parting of the Ways

**I don't own anything except for my OC's. And the changes I made to the storyline. Everything else belongs to BBC.**

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"We've got incoming!" Jack shouted.

The Guardian fought to keep the TARDIS steady as it flew through space. "Just a moment!" She pulled a lever just as the TARDIS shook with a massive explosion. Daleks and their missiles.

"The extrapolator's working." Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk."

"And for my next trick..." The Doctor flipped a bunch of switches.

As the TARDIS materialized, Michael and one of the Daleks appeared inside the console room. As soon as they were entirely present, the Guardian dove forward, grabbing her son and shielding him while Jack shot the Dalek with his makeshift gun. The Dalek yelled "exterminate!" just before it exploded.

The Guardian uncurled from her protective position to look at her son's small, tear-stained face.

"Michael!" The Doctor crouched beside them. "Is he alright?"

The Guardian closed her eyes, using the maternal bond to check her son for injuries. What she found made her blood feel cold.

She opened her eyes again and gazed down in his bright blue-gray eyes, ones that looked just like his father's. She could feel his small body shuddering as it fought the process it knew he wasn't ready for.

 _"_ _Amadahy?"_

 _'He's dying, Eltanin.'_ She couldn't even say the words out loud. _'The Game Station staff was right. Children can't survive the transmats.'_

"Doctor? Guardian?"

The Guardian barely glanced up at Jack.

"What's wrong?"

At that moment, Michael's tiny hands began to glow golden.

"He's regenerating?" Jack asked. "You can do that so young?"

The Doctor answered. "At great cost. Guardian, we need to get back."

The Guardian shook her head. No, she couldn't just abandon her son at a time like this. He was terrified; she could sense it.

 _"Amadahy, get back. His regeneration will trigger yours, and we don't have time for you to recover from a regeneration right now."_

The Guardian winced. She could hear how it hurt the Doctor to have to be the coldly logical one. Tears burning her eyes, she kissed her son on the forehead.

 _"I love you, Wesen. You'll be okay."_ Then she set him down on the console floor and let the Doctor pull her away.

The Gallifreyans clung to each other as the regeneration energy exploded, and Michael cried both telepathically and aloud. The Guardian flinched as she sensed each extra life leaving him. Because that was the cost of regenerating so young—after this, he would only have eight regenerations left, instead of eleven.

Suddenly, everything fell silent. The Doctor and the Guardian released each other to look over and see their son's new incarnation.

He was looking around with a curious look in his now-dark brown eyes. His hair was still black, though now it was curly. His skin had darkened considerably, which didn't surprise the Guardian. While the Doctor's incarnations had always appeared to be Caucasian human males, her incarnations had varied quite a bit in appearance.

Michael finally looked at his parents. "Maiteria! Paitare!" And then he slumped forward, exhausted from the regeneration.

The Guardian caught him just before his face hit the grating. She pulled him into her arms, letting his head rest against her shoulder. "I'll take him to the nursery."

The Doctor nodded and rested one hand on his son's head for a moment. He kissed the boy's forehead.

The Guardian smiled sadly and took Michael back to his room. She wanted to stay with him, watch over him as he slipped into a healing coma, but there were resurrected Daleks to deal with and a universe to save. He would be fine—the TARDIS would ensure that.

Reluctantly, she went back the console room, her resolve hardening as she did so. "Right. Time to go meet the neighbors." She walked directly to the doors, the Doctor and Jack following her.

The moment she stepped outside, the Daleks began crying "exterminate!" They fired, only for the forcefield to stop the deadly energy.

The Guardian smirked.

"Is that it?" The Doctor asked. "Useless. Nul points! Don't bother trying that again, 'cos this forcefield can hold back anything."

"Almost anything," Jack corrected.

The Guardian and the Doctor both turned to glare at him. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that," the Doctor replied. "Thanks."

"Sorry."

The Doctor turned back the Daleks, looking at them coldly. He advanced towards them. Just as he was about to step out of the forcefield, the Guardian grabbed his arm.

 _'Best not do that, Eltanin.'_

 _'Right. Thanks.'_

"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld?" He asked the Daleks. "The Oncoming Storm. But you lot have even more recent legends, of the Time Lady known as the Weapon. Well, here she is—and you just hurt her child. That's not a very safe place to stand. The Oncoming Storm and the Weapon, and we both have the same motivation to kill each and every one of you.

"You might have removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face us? So tell me: how did you survive the Time War?"

A deep, warbling voice drew the Guardian, the Doctor, and Jack's attention to the side. "They survived through me."

Her jaw tightened. No. That was impossible. She personally made sure that his ship was destroyed.

A light illuminated a giant, open Dalek casing. In the center, a Dalek mutant was suspended in blue transparent fluid.

"Jack," the Guardian said. "Meet the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You both destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno. But my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it."

"Do not interrupt!" The Daleks cried, repeating themselves several times.

The Guardian took a deep breath to keep from lashing out at them. The forcefield could only take so many hits from a Dalek laser.

"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. Plus, my talking is the only thing keeping the Guardian from killing you all right now. So, anybody's going to shut up, it you!" He spun around and lunged slightly at several Daleks, making them roll back a couple of feet.

The Guardian smirked. "So, where were? Oh, yes, you had managed to survive the explosives that I rigged on your ship, which is quite a feat I must say."

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity."

The Guardian frowned. What would they need the waste of humanity for? Unless…

"The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filleted, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"You created an army of Daleks out of the dead?" The Guardian felt sick. That was wrong, even for her morals. That was just… wrong.

Jack shifted uncomfortably. "But, doesn't that make you half human?"

"Those words are blasphemy!" The Guardian was startled by the outrage in the Emperor's voice.

"Do not blaspheme!" The Daleks surrounding them mimicked their leader's outrage.

Since when did Daleks feel offense?

"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

The Guardian raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Then how did you come to have a concept of blasphemy? Or learn to feel outrage?"

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of All Daleks!"

"Worship him. Worship him. Worship him." This time all of the Daleks joined in, not just their guards.

The Guardian looked around. "Doctor, they're insane."

He nodded, his expression matching her own horror. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years—that's enough to drive anyone mad."

"As I well know," she agreed quietly. She raised her voice to address the Daleks. "But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh."

"The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence." The Guardian was startled by the pity in the Doctor's eyes.

 _'Eltanin, they're more deadly than ever right now.'_

He nodded. _'I know, Amadahy. I know. I guess they are just easier to understand for once.'_

She glanced at him. Of course he could empathize with a race that hated themselves. He thought she didn't know, but she could tell—beneath the happy father and loving husband was a man haunted by his past actions. A man who hated himself, and felt guilty for being so happy when he had killed his own people.

She struggled with the same emotions every time she dared think of her worst self's actions. "Jack, time to go." She took the Doctor's hand and dragged him back to the TARDIS.

"You may not leave my presence!"

The Guardian waved behind her with her free hand. "Watch us!" She slammed the door on the Daleks' protests and demands. Immediately, she wrapped her arms around the Doctor's waist, letting him rest his forehead on her shoulder.

They stood in silence for a minute, listening to the far-too familiar cries of "exterminate". It was like the nightmares they both suffered from. Only this time, it was real.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The TARDIS rematerialized in the Game Station, and the Doctor was the first one out, the Guardian following closely behind him.

"Turn everything up," he ordered. "All transmitters, full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"

Only the blonde and two of the staff members were left. "What does this do?"

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board," the Guardian answered. She sat down at a computer and began following her husband's orders.

"How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."

The Guardian rolled her eyes. Typical humans.

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go." The man said.

"Didn't want to leave you."

Great. Another blonde human with a crush on the Doctor.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here," the staff woman added. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

The Guardian winced. One hundred civilians.

"Oh, my god. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

One hundred civilians in the line of fire.

"Oh!"

The Guardian turned to see a big grin on the Doctor's face. He ran over to a section of the conduits.

"Doctor, what the hell are you doing?" She stood and followed him.

He began pulling pieces out. "Dalek plan—big mistake, 'cos what've they left me with? Anyone? Anyone?"

The Guardian frowned. There was something…

"Oh, come one, it's obvious. A great big transmitter—this station! If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it... Anyone?"

The Guardian blinked. "A Delta Wave?"

"You've got to be kidding," Jack said.

"A Delta Wave!" The Doctor turned back to frantically collecting pieces.

"What's a Delta Wave?" The blonde, Lynda, asked.

"Jack." The Guardian pointed at him, then joined the Doctor in gathering the needed supplies.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."

"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!"

"Well, get started and do it then," Lynda said.

The Guardian glanced at the Doctor and nodded. They needed to know.

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh… three days?"

"How long until the Fleet arrives?" The Guardian asked the staff man.

"Twenty-two minutes."

"Right. Best get started then."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian helped the Doctor reroute various wires while Jack explained their fighting strategy. The guns wouldn't do anything; they were going downstairs to die and hopefully buy them a few minutes. But Jack didn't tell them that.

"Guardian, I need you to operate the lifts, take us to Floor 499."

The Guardian put down her wires and hurried over the computer that was now controlling the lifts. In the corner of her eye, she watched Lynda shake hands with the Doctor before the human joined the two staff members in the lift.

Jack grabbed her shoulders. "Guardian, you're the first person since my mother died who treated me like you thought I could amount to something."

Surprised, the Guardian hugged him back.

"Enough hugging my wife." The Doctor had appeared behind them.

Jack released the Guardian and immediately hugged the Doctor. "Doctor, thanks for coming when I needed you. See you in hell." He cleared his throat.

As Jack ran off to join the humans in the lift, the Guardian took the Doctor's hand. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, knowing that he was bothered by the reminder of his earlier failing of Jack.

They turned back to the wiring. After several minutes of working in silence, the Guardian finally spoke. _"The Delta Wave isn't going to be ready in time, is it?"_

He sighed. _"I can get it ready, but there's no way to refine it."_

She flinched. _"So we're also going to fry the brains of the entire Earth?"_

 _"Basically."_

The Guardian bit her lip. The TARDIS wasn't going to be able to protect them. Which meant that Michael and Gwyneth wouldn't be safe either.

The Doctor seemed to come to that same conclusion, because he looked over at her. _"I want you to take Michael and Gwyneth somewhere safe."_

She pretended not to see the devastation in his eyes. _"Alright then. I'll be back in a moment."_ She stood.

 _"No."_

She stopped and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. She turned back to him. _"I'm not abandoning you here."_

 _"Someone needs to stay with the children."_

The Guardian shook her head. _"I've never run from a battle in my life."_

He stood and pulled her into his arms. _"I'm not asking you to run from a battle. I'm begging you to make sure our children are safe."_

She bit her lip. _"I can't just let you die."_

 _"Amadahy, I promised to protect you. Let me do that."_

She closed her eyes, her desire to be at his side warring with her maternal instinct to keep her children safe. She nodded slowly and kissed him, realizing it might be the last time. A moment later, she pulled away and walked to the TARDIS. Not even she dared look back.

Inside, she ran for the console, a plan forming. _"Alright, old girl. You know what I need."_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor watched the TARDIS fade away, tears streaming freely down his cheeks. When the last remnants of the TARDIS noise died away, he hung his head and closed his eyes.

This wasn't fair. How many times had he saved the Universe? How many worlds had he saved? Even with the burning of Gallifrey, he had hoped it was enough to earn him the right to live quietly with his family.

With a cry of rage, he threw a random piece of equipment across the room. Now he would be nothing more than a distant memory to his children. Their father, who died saving the Universe from the Daleks. Their father, who destroyed the Earth long before its time.

Another piece of equipment shattered against the wall. It was all his fault. Nothing could ever wash away the blood of Gallifrey. Perhaps that's why the Daleks kept coming back. It was all to mock him, remind him what he did. A third piece of equipment followed the second.

 _~"Guardian, I've called up the internal laser codes,"~_ Jack's voice brought him back to the problem at hand. _~"There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?"~_

"She's not here." He forced his voice to remain steady.

There was silence for a moment. _~"You sent her and the kids away."~_

The Doctor sighed. "Yeah." He hesitated. He opened his mouth to tell Jack the truth about their first meeting—the meeting that Jack couldn't remember. If they were going to die here, then Jack deserved to know the truth about why his mother died. "Jack..."

 _~"The Delta Wave."~_ The man said suddenly, cutting the Doctor off.

The Doctor glanced away, hating how grateful he felt. No, he couldn't tell him. Today of all days, the Doctor couldn't lose someone else.

 _~"Is it ever going to be ready?"~_

 _~"Tell him the truth, Doctor."~_

He looked up to see an image of the Dalek Emperor had appeared on the viewscreen. Apparently they couldn't keep transmissions from the Fleet away.

 _~"There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die by your hand."~_

The Doctor didn't even question how the Dalek Emperor knew that. What did it matter? They couldn't stop him if the Delta Wave was completed in time, and how long it would take was out of his hands.

 _~"Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth."~_ Jack's voice shook.

He knew that.

 _~"You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"~_

"There are colonies out there," he snapped. "The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger if I let you live."

The Doctor noticed that his hands were shaking. He wasn't even sure that he could do this. It was too much like destroying Gallifrey, only this time he wouldn't survive.

"Do you see, Jack?" He focused on the computer, rather than the viewscreen. "That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?" A part of him hoped that Jack would take it out of his hands, like Harriet Jones had in Downing Street.

 _~"They're safe, Doctor. Keep working."~_

The Doctor sighed. It was the 'just do it' that he was hoping for, but he had to remember that—the Guardian and the children weren't in danger anymore.

 _~"But he will exterminate you!"~_

The Doctor flinched. He had killed Jack's mother, now he was killing Jack.

 _~"Never doubted him, never will."~_ Jack's reply was confident.

The Doctor grinned weakly. "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, 'cos there's one thing I never worked out. The words "Bad Wolf", spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?"

 _~"I did nothing."~_ The Emperor seemed almost reluctant to admit that.

The Doctor scoffed. "Oh, come on. There's no secrets now, Your Worship."

 _~"They are not part of my design. This is the truth of God."~_

The Doctor stared at the image on the screen. Was that… _sincerity_ in the Dalek's tone? Could he really be telling the truth—the Daleks had nothing to do with the words?

He looked up at the words, a line from an old Gallifreyan poem coming to mind.

 _"Here comes the bad wolf, the bright and shining bad wolf..."_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _Here comes the bad wolf, the bright and shining bad wolf._

 _Here comes the one who's broken._

 _Powerful beyond dreams is the_ _B_ _ad_ _W_ _olf._

 _Angry beyond nightmares._

 _The one who crushes gods and brings life._

 _Creating itself. Saving_ _worlds._

 _But beware, Bad Wolf._

 _Beware losing what you have saved._

 _For there is always a price to pay, Bad Wolf._

 _A price ten times your debt._

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian quietly stepped into her children's room. They still slept. Gently, she kissed first Gwyneth, then Michael on the head, sending their minds a telepathic message to sleep.

Straightening, she took a deep breath. She had to do it. It was the only way to keep her children safe. No matter what happened.

She carried Gwyneth to the console room, where the Chameleon Arch was ready, set up to change her daughter's biology into that of a human.

Gwyneth's unconscious state spared the Guardian from having to listen to her screams as the little girl's biology was rewritten. Nevertheless, the Guardian held her head, gasping in pain as her daughter's presence in her mind faded, until the psychic link between mother and daughter was nothing more than a spark, a stump.

Gathering her strength, the Guardian repeated the process with Michael. This time was even worse, as she was closer to Michael, like the Doctor was to Gwyneth. She lay on the floor for several minutes after the process was completed, gasping for breath. Her mind involuntarily called out for her children, like a phantom pain.

Finally, she was able to push herself to her feet. The TARDIS had chosen a random destination, some point in Earth's history. The Guardian made her way to the door and looked around outside.

It was an ordinary street, probably in the 1980s. The TARDIS had landed in the yard of a large house. The sign a short distance away read "Children's Home".

It seemed safe enough. And the Guardian trusted the TARDIS enough to take her to a time and a place where Michael and Gwyneth would be completely safe.

She stumbled back into the TARDIS and gathered up her two children—her now-Human children—and the fob watch and locket that now held their real selves.

She walked quickly across the lawn, needing to get this over with. She couldn't delay. She didn't trust herself enough to go through with it if she lingered.

A young brunette woman answered the door when she rang the bell. "May I help you?" She smiled sweetly.

The Guardian nodded, willing herself not to break down in front of this girl. "I need you to keep them safe."

The girl started. "What?" she asked, confused.

"I need them to be kept safe." She gestured to the children in her arms. "They are my world, but right now it isn't safe with me."

"Are you certain?" she asked after a moment.

The Guardian nodded and looked down at her son and daughter. "I hope that I can come back for them."

The girl nodded. "May I?" She gestured to Gwyneth.

Reluctantly, her maternal instincts screaming otherwise, the Guardian let the girl take Gwyneth. Something lit up in the young woman's eyes as she held the little girl, almost like she was coming alive again. "I promise that they'll be safe, Mrs…?"

"Shannon." The Guardian replied.

"Mrs. Shannon."

With just as much reluctance, the Guardian passed Michael to the young woman. "And these must stay with them, no matter what." She handed over the fob watch and locket.

"They're beautiful! Are they family heirlooms?"

"You might say that." The Guardian kissed her daughter's head. "Good-bye. Remember that we love you." She did the same to her son.

Then she ran back to the TARDIS. Once inside, she collapsed against the door and slid to the floor, finally letting her hearts break and release the tears she had been refusing to let fall.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor half listened to everything that Jack and Lynda reported as he hurried to get everything ready. He wasn't surprised when Lynda reported that the defenses had gone offline. Of course the Daleks would now how to do that. They built Satellite Five, or near enough.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _Deep in the TARDIS, something stirred. The ship's heart broke listening to the broken sobs of the woman she considered her daughter._

 _After all, her heart, the Time Vortex, had made the immortal child what she was._

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _~"Advance guard made it to 495."~_ The Doctor heard Lynda's voice over all the beeping alarms.

"Jack, how are we doing?"

 _~"495 should be good. I like 495."~_

The Doctor grinned. That would be the Anne Droid. Or rather, a replacement one, since the Guardian shot the last one.

His grin faded and his hearts hurt. He glanced over at the spot where the TARDIS had been, before mentally shaking himself and returning to work.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _~"They're flying up the ventilation shafts,"~_ Lynda said. _~"No, wait a minute… oh, my god… Why're they doing that? They're going down!"~_

The Doctor closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against a panel. The people on Floor Zero would be dead shortly.

A couple of minutes later, Lynda confirmed his fears. They were all dead.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _The TARDIS's decision was made. She could feel her daughter's distress and her thief's fear._ _After all, this was going to happen anyway. Had happened? Was happening? Oh, she would never understand those tenses!_

 _Unseen by her broken daughter, the TARDIS opened a panel on the console._

GD~GD~GD~GD~

"Lynda, what's happening on Earth?" The Doctor called. The Daleks had made it to Floor 498.

 _~"The Fleet's descending. They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just...gone."~_

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _Golden light, bright and shining, floated over towards the Guardian._

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _~"I've got a problem,"~_ Lynda said quietly. _~"They've found me."~_

The Doctor looked up. No. Most of the human volunteers were already dead. Not another life lost because of him.

"You'll be all right, Lynda. That side of the station's reinforced against meteors." He did his best to sound more optimistic than he felt.

 _~"Hope so! You know what they say about Earth workmanship."~_ She didn't sound anymore convinced than he was.

A minute later, he heard her scream. Just once.

He dropped his head in his hands. Sweet little Lynda with a 'y' was dead.

 _~"Last man standing! For god's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!"~_ Jack shouted. The Doctor could hear gunfire.

 _~"Finish that thing and kill mankind."~_ The Emperor taunted on the viewscreen.

There wasn't much of mankind left to kill. That knowledge soothed his conscience and spurred him on.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _"I'm so sorry for what must come, my daughter."_

The Guardian looked up at the voice, just before a bright golden light surrounded her.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 _~"Doctor! You've got twenty seconds maximum!"~_ Gunfire punctuated Jack's shout.

The Doctor wired in the final cable. There. It was done. All that was needed was for him to pull the trigger.

 _~"Exterminate!"~_

He looked up.

Then he heard Jack's disdain-filled voice. _~"Yeah, I kind of figured that."~_

There was a thud, like a body hitting the lift doors. Now Jack was dead.

He was all alone once again, making the decision to destroy the Daleks and an entire planet to save the Universe.

The doors around the room opened and dozens of Daleks entered. He was surrounded.

"You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."

How could he be so torn between ready to act and desperately hoping he wouldn't have to? In many ways, it was even worse than destroying Gallifrey. At least with Gallifrey, he had also been protecting the Universe from his own people. But the humans on Earth were innocent in all of this.

How did the Guardian cope with the blood of so many innocents on her hands?

 _~"I am immortal."~_

No, he wasn't. The Guardian was immortal. "Do you want to put that to the test?"

 _~"I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator!"~_

Just the words made him feel sick. All these years, and that was what he was going to be known for?

"I'll do it!" He put his hands on the trigger. All he had to do was push down and they were all dead.

 _~"Then prove yourself, Doctor! What are you: coward or killer?"~_

He braced himself to push, gritting his teeth. But the Dalek Emperor's words rang in his mind. Coward or killer? Coward? Killer?

Coward or killer?

He eased his hands off the trigger, feeling like a failure. "Coward. Any day." He wasn't strong enough to do it all over again.

 _~"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness."~_

And his children would be in danger again one day. But even with that knowledge, he couldn't do it. After all, the Daleks would just come back yet again. It seemed that there was no stopping them.

"And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?"

 _~"You are the heathen. You will be exterminated."~_

"Maybe it's time." He had survived four hundred years of War. His death was long overdue. Besides, that golden young woman who had saved his life so many times during the Time War wasn't around right now to save him once again.

She was trapped in the Time Lock with the rest of their people.

He closed his eyes and waited.

"Exterminate!"

His body jolted and he cried out in pain before everything went black.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Bad Wolf opened her eyes. Everything was cast in a golden light. She cried out as the felt the power of all time and space running through her head.

 _"Be calm, my daughter. You can do this."_

A picture formed in her mind, so vivid it was as though she was there. A small girl with unruly blonde curls stood in front of her, her eyes wide with fear. A moment later, she fell to the ground screaming. And the Bad Wolf knew.

The little's girl's biology was being rewritten. To become an Immortal. To carry a little bit of the power of the Time Vortex. All to prepare her body for this moment.

She felt the TARDIS leave the Time Vortex and land. She knew exactly where she was even though she hadn't set the coordinates, nor had she seen the monitor. She could sense it, hear the buzz of time, and the smell of the years gone by.

The doors opened, letting her light spill out.

It was Floor 500, and she was surrounded by Daleks.

Her husband's body lay in the middle of the floor, dropped there like a puppet with its strings cut.

 _"No!"_ She cried.

"This is an abomination!" She heard the Emperor's voice.

Cries of "exterminate!" sounded around her, but she threw up walls that the Dalek extermination bolts couldn't penetrate. She walked softly over to the Doctor's body.

 _"Oh, Eltanin. I am so sorry."_ She placed glowing hands on either side of his face and leaned down and kissed him, concentrating the Vortex power on restoring him. He would have to regenerate shortly, but at least her husband would be alive once more.

She felt him gasp awake. _"Amadahy?"_ His eyes widened and he sat up, making her pull back. _"What the hell are you doing? No one was ever meant to take that in!"_

The Bad Wolf smiled and brushed her hand against his face. " _I was, Eltanin. My biology was changed. I can hold the power of the Vortex, at least for a little while. Long enough to save you. It is a gift from the TARDIS, to save her thief and her daughter. And it means that I can give you this."_

She closed her eyes and searched for Jack in her mind, dismayed to find him dead in the other room. A moment later, and she felt him gasp awake. Forever. Now, she saw a long, long life ahead of him, one that would not end until he gave up his lifeforce to save a city far in the future.

 _'I'm so sorry, Jack.'_

Then she turned her mind to the hundreds of dead all over the Game Station. As a whole, she brought the humans all back to life.

Just for the Doctor.

On the planet below, she felt more people's timelines restarting. Everyone who had died in the Dalek attack.

She opened her eyes again and smiled once more at the Doctor. _"Everybody lives, Eltanin. Just this once, all the humans live."_

 _"What? What have you done?"_ He shouted.

 _"Only what it was always said I would do. 'Powerful beyond dreams is the Bad Wolf.' I save worlds, and I bring life."_ She stood, turning her attention to the words on the wall. _"I create myself."_

She waved her hand and scattered the words all across her timeline and the Universe, sending them all the way back to the Gallifreyan poet who first penned the tale of her. Then she sent the nightmares to her past self, warning her. She even pulled a few strings in time, allowing her to have the dream of her mother and Gallifrey.

 _"Amadahy, you need to stop this!"_

She turned back to him. _"Yes, yes, I do."_

She felt the anger of the Bad Wolf, the TARDIS, and the Guardian, all as one. With a wave of her hand, the Daleks were unfrozen. Their battlecries and their god's declarations of his own godhood were just tiny noises, like an Earth gnat.

 _"You are nothing!"_ She shouted. _"Tiny! Nothing to a creature like me! You claim to be immortal, Dalek. Then_ _feel immortality!_ _W_ _atch your children perish!"_

She jerked her hands outward. Bits of the Vortex energy flew towards the Daleks, making its way into their casings. The Bad Wolf heard the Daleks screaming in agony as the Vortex burned the mutants to death.

For eight hundred years, the Daleks had waged war against the Children of the Time Vortex. Now, the Vortex was finally getting its revenge.

Around her, the Daleks began exploding, but she confined each explosion so it didn't damage anything but the Dalek casing.

Outside the Game Station, the Daleks on Earth and on the battleships also exploded. Until there was only one left.

 _"Come to me, tiny Dalek."_ She commanded.

As she had ordered, the Emperor suddenly appeared in the Station.

 _"Do you still claim immortality?"_

"I am immortal!"

 _"Then feel death!"_ One more flick of her wrist, and the Emperor joined his children in their fate.

At last, she felt the Time Vortex settle. _"It is done, my daughter,"_ the TARDIS told her.

She breathed a sigh. Golden light spilled out of her as she released her whole on the Vortex. She watched it fly around the room before returning to the TARDIS where it belonged.

Then her world went dark.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Doctor caught the Guardian as she fell, picking her up bridal style. He couldn't completely believe that he had just seen, but the evidence was there in the form of exploded Dalek shells and the fact that he was still alive.

Jack suddenly ran into the room. "Doctor, what the hell just happened?"

The Doctor blinked. The man was alive again! He glanced down at the Guardian. She had actually done it. She had brought Jack back to life!

Except… why did Jack suddenly feel… wrong?

"Get in the TARDIS," he said.

Jack stepped back when he saw it. "How did that get back here? How did _she_ get back here?"

"In the TARDIS." The Doctor replied. He hurried back to the TARDIS as quickly as the Guardian's unconscious form and his now-failing body would let him.

Inside, he noted the lack of Gwyneth and Michael's psychic presence. The Guardian must have left them with Sarah Jane.

He gently laid the Guardian on the console room floor, kissed her forehead, and moved over to the console. They needed to be in the Vortex for this.

The Doctor leaned against the console unit. Already, he could feel his organs dying, one-by-one. No one was meant to come back after direct hits from several Daleks at the same time.

What sort of man would he be this time? A lover? A fighter? Bold? Timid? A leader? A nervous wreck? A gambler? Life and soul?

Romona had once told him that it was possible to influence what sort of person you became when you regenerated. He certainly hoped that was true. Because there was just one trait he wanted above all others.

He wanted to be a man who wasn't plagued by his regrets. One who wasn't held down and tormented by memories of a past he couldn't change.

He wanted to be a man who was free from his past.

GD~GD~GD~GD~

The Guardian woke up slowly, hearing voices. The Doctor was talking to Jack, explaining what had happened. Did he know that Jack was now immortal—a fixed point in time? Probably not. She only knew because of the Time Vortex showing her Jack's timeline.

Then she gasped. Doctor was going to regenerate. Or had he already? She sat up and looked towards the console. No. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her daft old Doctor was still there.

"You haven't changed yet." She said.

Both men jumped and looked at her. The Doctor hurried over and helped her to her feet, pulling her into his arms. She leaned into the feel of what she knew would be their last embrace, their last kiss. Already she could feel the waves of energy rising up in him.

 _"I love you, Amadahy."_ He whispered.

She smiled sadly. _"I love you too, Eltanin. No matter what."_ She stepped back, knowing it was time. At least they had gotten this extra minute together before he had to regenerate. "You were fantastic."

He grinned at her use of his favorite word. "So were you. And you, Jack."

Then, he threw his head back as the regeneration hit. The Guardian wrapped her arms around herself, biting her lip, as she listened to his telepathic death-cry. She looked away, knowing this meant her husband was one incarnation closer to his last. He could only change twice more now.

While she would live on indefinitely.

The Guardian looked back up as she felt the regeneration energy subside. A new man stood there in her husband's familiar clothes.

This man's hair was a bit lighter, his features thinner and finer. His formerly blue-gray eyes were now dark, dark brown. The Guardian was slightly disappointed to note that her husband was now very, very thin, when he had been rather well-built before.

He gasped for breath. "Hello...okay." He spoke with a South London accent. What a contrast from her own Scottish accent and his previous Northern one.

The new Doctor made a strange face as he felt his teeth with is tongue. "New teeth, that's weird." He looked up at her and grinned. "So, what do you say we go pick up our children?"

The Guardian smiled, ignoring the bad feeling she had. "That would be fantastic."

GD~GD~GD~GD~

 **I've finished Book One! Oh my gosh!**

 **Well, this is going to be the last update to this series for a while, as I need to take some time to work on my other writing project, a book I hope to publish sometime in the next year or so. It seems I'm not capable of working on two writing projects at once, so sadly, this one will have to wait for a bit. However, I do plan on putting together Book 2 in The Guardian of Time Series. As you know, it will be called _A Tale of Two Time Lords and an Immortal_ , and it will be angsty. Just warning you all. It will break your heart. **

**Here's the current summary:** _The Doctor has regenerated. But when tragedy strikes, the Gallifreyans are driven apart. And when they are reunited at Canary Wharf, all is not happily ever after. With their_ _love_ _broken seemingly beyond repair, will they survive when the Master and the Toclofane appear?_

 **WHAT?! I'll just leave you with that.**

 **But, there is some good news. As I am able, I'll be writing some fluffy, domestic one-shots taking place in the year between "The End of the World" and "Boom Town". They may be long or short, depending on how much time I get to work on them. Readers can feel free to make suggestions! It will be called "Domestics". Kind of ironic considering how much Nine in the show hated domestics.**

 **Thank you so much to everyone who has read _The Doctor and His Guardian_ , and also to everyone who has reviewed it. As a gift (of sorts), I've got another sneak peak at Book 2 for you. **

_The Guardian looked around, searching. Plasmavore. Surrounded by police. What would be the most tactically advantageous thing to do?_

 _She spotted a sign pointing to the MRI room. Oh. That was clever._

 _There was a crash that made the three of them jump. They heard the Judoon march down the hall._

 _"I've got to find her!" The Doctor shouted, looking around. He turned to Martha. "Martha, you've got to hold them up."_

 _"How do I do that?" The girl asked._

 _Without warning, the Doctor grabbed the human's face and kissed her. The Guardian looked away, unable to watch._

 _"Guardian, come with me!" She heard the Doctor run away and Martha sigh._

 _"Which way did he go?" The Guardian turned back to Martha, flinching at the dazed look on the girl's face._

 _Martha pointed down the hall—past the MRI room. She blinked. "Wait a minute… you're his wife." Her eyes widened with horror. "Oh my god..."_

 _The Guardian forced a smile. "Keep the Judoon busy for a few minutes, then lead them to the MRI room. That's where I'll be, and the Plasmavore will be with me." She turned and ran down the hall in the correct direction, trying to forget the image of her husband kissing another woman._

 **There's another "WHAT?!" moment for you. I did warn you that there was going to be angst.**


End file.
